Empowering girls to run for their head and their heart

MindRun4Girls is on a mission to empower all girls to run for their head as well as their heart (i.e. for mental wellbeing as well as physical). They want to help girls get more active and less anxious. We caught up with Victoria to find out how MindRun4Girls have adapted their Satellite Club to deliver sessions during lockdown and her plans for the future. 

Did you know that girls do a lot less exercise than boys, with only 18% of girls in the UK doing the required level of daily activity? This gender disparity gets more evident as girls transition to secondary school with body confidence issues, puberty, friendship challenges and social media influences.

It is also estimated that 1 in 3 children in the UK can suffer from a mental disorder, with many school leads observing that many more girls are suffering from anxiety.

MindRun4Girls offers a solution! Our programmes include Mindfulness, Fun Running Games and every session we learn about a female sports role model.

We started in Primary schools in the Autumn Term 2019 and expanded into Secondary schools early 2020. Prior to Covid-19, we were running a Satellite Club at a local Secondary school with Year 9 girls in partnership with the fantastic Wesport. We were also delivering our programmes in multiple primary schools across North Somerset and Bristol and provided sessions for other third-party sports providers e.g the North Somerset PE Association.

Covid-19 has unfortunately hit our business and programmes significantly. As schools shut and the nation went into lockdown we were unable to physically deliver any sessions.

This is how we adapted:

- We put together a free-online MindRun4Girls coaching session to do at home on You Tube - available to all ages/genders with fitness activities, a mindfulness technique and inspiration from our favourite female sports role models

- We ran live and on-line sessions for current school clients to do at home via Zoom

- We shared advice, support , running games and motivation via our social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) with some great feedback and an increased community

In terms of future plans, we believe that young girls need our help more than ever. Significant research points to a decreased level of physical activity and an increase in mental health issues amongst young people due to lockdown and Covid-19. As our sessions are outdoor in nature and straight forward to perform with social distancing , we are really keen to work in partnership with schools to get back to delivering our programmes in a safe environment as soon as possible. We are also exploring providing our programmes outside of school hours directly with girls and parents. Dialogue with schools has already started and our intention is to be “Live” again sometime in the Autumn term.

If you have a school or a parent that is interested in our programmes please get in touch with MindRun4Girls. Contact details are vix@mindrun4girls.co.uk, via our website www.mindrun4girls.co.uk and you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

MindRun4Girls was established in 2019 by their Business Founder Victoria Winterson.

Key benefits of the programmes include:

1. Self esteem booster

2. Stress/Anxiety buster

3. Improved stamina

4. Helps with other sports

5. Role Models/Empowerment

6. Life Skills for the Future

7. Headspace

8. Improved mental well-being and resilience