Earlier this week, we highlighted how many women in London are active. Even though some of the female activity trends in the capital are encouraging, we still have some way to go to make sure our sector is catering to the needs of women and girls in London.
Putting ‘Understanding Women’s Lives’ research into practice
Women in Sport’s research piece – Understanding Women’s Lives has provided more insight into the lives of women and what barriers and motivations they may have when wanting to be physically active. Key findings showed that cultural conditions are ripe to transform women’s sport, but to increase participation, physical activity and sport will have to adapt. The research also showed that every woman’s relationship with physical activity is unique and using typologies or segments to represent women and girls is too simplistic.
The first-stop shop for physical activity and sport in London
We don’t deliver sport in London but seek to support those that do, by offering local insight, knowledge and expertise and more. Initially, we put together the funding bid, as well as the concept and offered it to several London Universities. University College London (UCLU) have taken up the concept and by working together, we were able to better understand their approach to female activity opportunities. We then went on to recruit the coaches, as well as develop training resources for their coaches to be able to offer sessions specific to women and girls. UCLU already have the structures in place to be able to target inactive females, as well as deliver sessions at their venues. After a communications plan and digital presence was created, the project was ready to launch.
The Dare2 Try project
The project is specifically designed to target 18 to 25-year-old female students who aren’t active at all and particularly the specific Sport England Youth Personalities; cautious introverts, thoughtful improvers and everyday youth. Dare2 Try offers five activities for eight weeks to its female students, starting on 10 October – squash, basketball, football, table tennis and Zumba. Wrist bands are being used to demonstrate what motivates the participations each week so that the coaches are able to adapt the sessions to satisfy these motivations.
One of the key aims of this Dare2 Try project, is to collect the right data, so that when the project is evaluated, we are able to share learnings with our partners so that the programme can be used in other Universities, Colleges and community settings across London.
Want to find out more?
Head over to the UCLU website, to find out more about what sessions are taking place at the university, or check out their Project Active Dare2 Try Facebook page.
