THIS GIRL CAN

Malvern Hills District Council, Freedom Leisure, Action for Children and the Sports Partnership Herefordshire and Worcestershire

OVERVIEW

On Friday the 4th of March 2016 Active Youth Outreach Services began a 6 week Sportivate funded archery project located at Sport Martley leisure centre, The project supported the larger ’ThisWorcsGirlCan’ (National This Girl Can) initiative aims to get more young women involved in physical activity and sport to support their mental well-being. AYOS worked with many partner bodies to achieve this including Malvern Hills District Council, Freedom Leisure, Action for Children and the Sports Partnership Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

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SESSION

AYOS were approached to become a part of the advisory board for ‘ThisWorcsGirlCan’ which was lead by Malvern Hills Early Help as a result of us already delivering many programmes and courses for children and young people. The sessions ran from 5:30pm—6:30pm each Friday evening for 6 weeks, we were keen to cultivate a sense of ownership for the sessions so that young women could feel at ease and comfortable in the new surroundings when trying a new activity.

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We set up full safety netting and used real target bosses. Our qualified staff then engaged with around 10 young people, most of which returned for the en re 6 weeks. All the YP received full safety briefings and were coached across the weeks with regards to stance, body angle, correct technique and aiming in order for them to improve and gain success.

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RESULTS

Throughout the project we had 98% attendance from all the young women who a ended the first session, 90% said the reason for a ending was to have fun and learning a new skill and 100% said they would a end again.

All of the attendees enjoyed the relaxed, self-lead learning used for the delivery of the project and 100% rated the initiative between Good (3) and Excellent (5)

We had some great feedback and the young women who a ended;

“This is the first time I have left the house in 3 years apart from to go to school, I really like archery”

“Sessions were great, good to have adults there to talk to as well”

“Where can I carry on Archery, I’m hooked”

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CONCLUSION

As a result of the positive feedback we are now seeking funding to run a sustainable ’satellite’ archery club in Martley for the young people in the area.