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By Dan Plouffe
At first glance, you wouldn’t think there’d be many barriers to participating in a sport like running. It’s about the most basic of physical activities, you can do it almost anywhere, and it doesn’t require a pile of specialized equipment to get into it.
“There are some barriers with equipment,” counters Kim McLean, who recently helped organize the season-ending 5K event of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group Foundation’s largest Girls on the Run Ottawa program yet.
Running shoes, sports bras and sports hijabs are among the items Girls on the Run provides for free to participants who need them, while water bottles and T-shirts “help them feel part of a team.”
“We want to create an inclusive experience where every girl can show up and feel confident in herself to be able to participate in running and physical activity,” McLean adds.
That’s just one piece of the puzzle, however. Some other roadblocks that could keep participants from running involve gender stereotypes, societal obstacles and cultural challenges.
Even the free 10-week, twice-a-week Girls on the Run program can sometimes be troublesome because it takes place after school, so organizers need to work to find solutions to transportation barriers, signals McLean, whose group also funds busses to bring runners and their families out to the 5K finale.
Language and translation support for the curriculum and resources that make up the program is another key component.
There could also be detrimental psychological influences at play, such as images in advertising and media that are male-centric or lack diversity.
“Part of our strategy is we put a lot of effort into recruiting diverse volunteers and coaches to lead our program. We really want the program to be reflective of the girls that we’re serving in our community,” highlights McLean, noting that training is provided to program leaders, who are often school staff members.
“These are people who just want to volunteer – they may be runners or they may just feel passionate about female empowerment and girls in sport. You definitely don’t have to be a runner to be involved in the program. It really is just about motivating and inspiring that next generation of girls.”
The OSEG Foundation is also big on showcasing role models who can help young participants see themselves participating and excelling, such as Paralympian Bianca Borgella, who was one of the speakers at Sports Day The Girls’ Way earlier this fall.
Read More: Injured Paralympic sprinter Bianca Borgella emerging from post-Games blues
A future champion runner like Borgella could well come from a Girls on the Run event, but that’s not the primary objective of the initiative. There are always a few girls who never thought they’d be able to complete the non-competitive five-kilometre run who wind up finishing, and that’s a huge win worth celebrating, McLean underlines.
“They just feel so proud of themselves after,” explains the OSEG Foundation’s senior manager of community impact and engagement. “To see those girls cross that finish line and feel the pride for themselves, it’s such an amazing feeling.”
With roots in Charlotte, N.C. and sites across North America, Girls on the Run aims to make an impact at a critical age when female sport participation rates drop significantly, as detailed in numerous studies.
There are Girls on the Run programs for Grade 3-5 and 6-8 groups, and for junior coaches. The activities and lessons are designed to build skills for life by enhancing participants’ knowledge, abilities and confidence.
The OSEG Foundation focuses on engaging youth from lower-income neighbourhoods or those that have fewer resources or opportunities for girls to be involved in sport, including some rural areas in Eastern Ontario.
Girls on the Run features both fall and springtime sessions. The concluding 5K run usually takes place at TD Place in the spring, while the Louis-Riel Dome hosted the largest edition yet on Dec. 1.
Louis-Riel’s 400-metre indoor track made it a safe, comfortable venue free of weather worries in December. Having 307 girls from 19 teams congregated together on the track for their 12.5-lap effort also made for a spectacular atmosphere, McLean indicates.
“The energy is really exciting and thrilling, and inspiring,” she says. “It’s just a really encouraging environment.”
On top of the girls running, there were also roughly 100 volunteers and running buddies in attendance, plus participants’ friends and families, the Ottawa Redblacks cheerleaders, city councillors Marty Carr, Laura Dudas, Theresa Kavanagh and Matthew Luloff, as well as the Ottawa Rapid FC Northern Super League women’s pro soccer team and the University of Ottawa women’s lacrosse team.
The girls could also get their face painted and wear sparkling hair clips to further add to the spirit.
“There are so many supporters there to cheer on these girls and really to help motivate them and keep them feeling positive through the 5k. It was just a really incredible day,” McLean notes. “We had so many girls who have never run before or who didn’t have an interest in running…
“Having them feel a part of a community and feel a part of a team hopefully inspires them to continue running and continue wanting to be involved in extracurriculars and sport teams and organizations.”
This article is part of the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Inclusion in Sport series. Read more about local sport inclusion initiatives at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-Sports-Pages-Inclusion-In-Sport-Series/.