Active Girls – Healthy Girls Spring Break Camp exposes adolescent girls to activities they can enjoy for life.
Many women exercise and play sports because it’s good for their health, but researchers out of UNC Greensboro’s Center for Women’s Health and Wellness (CWHW) say there’s a better motivator: joy.
This April, 60 girls between the ages of 9 -12 attended the Active Girls – Healthy Girls Spring Break Camp for a three-day experience packed with physical activity, community building, and education about what makes a healthy lifestyle.
“Our camp provides adolescent girls with a safe and exciting environment to try new activities and learn ways to overcome possible barriers to physical activity,” says Dr. Sandra Shultz, director of CWHW. “If you feel confident in yourself and know that there are activities that are available to you that you really enjoy, you’ll keep coming back to them.”
Closing the gender gap in physical activity
Active Girls – Healthy Girls is the only organization in Guilford County dedicated explicitly to closing the gender gap in physical activity. It aims to help adolescent girls overcome a staggering drop off in physical activity that happens in adolescence. By age 12, fewer than one in five girls meet the recommended guidelines. The results of less physical activity are alarming with negative impacts to mental health, confidence, and cognition.
“It’s a multitude of things that contribute to the decline in girls’ physical activity,” says Dr. Jaclyn Maher, associate professor of kinesiology. “Cultural expectations about what it means to be a girl and how that conflicts with a lot of the qualities that you display in sport; girls maturing and feeling uncomfortable in their bodies, their social and physical environment — the confluence of all those factors are why young girls are not as active.”
In addition, physical education requirements in school are minimal in middle school and high school, so the only outlet for consistent physical activity is organized sports.
“Our goal is to help them seek out activities that bring joy yet challenge them in ways that are meaningful to them,” Maher says.
Building healthy habits for life
Active Girls – Healthy Girls now in its second year, coincides with Guilford County Schools’ spring break. They collaborated with the school system, Greensboro Parks and Recreation and nonprofit Beyond Sports to design three days of activities and programming to keep girls moving, engaged, and joyful. The camp was generously sponsored by the Dawn S. Chaney Foundation so that all 60 participants could attend for free, with support from the Greensboro Sport Foundation.
Hosted in UNCG’s Kaplan Center, the camp included sessions that engaged the girls in all kinds of movement including dance, basketball, pickleball, yoga, and flag football.
“We exposed girls to a wide variety of ways to be active to help them realize that in this moment there’s not just one way to be active,” Maher says. “Our goal is to help them seek out activities that bring that joy and that intrinsic motivation to them personally and help them understand that what that movement is may change over time.”
In addition, the schedule was sprinkled with sessions that had guest speakers – including UNCG women athletes – and hands-on programming in nutrition, mindfulness, and taking care of your mental health.
“For many of these girls, this camp provides either their first positive experience, or, for some, their first exposure to important topics such as nutrition, hydration, body image, sleep hygiene, and leadership,” says Emily Postlethwait, a master’s student in the Department of Kinesiology concentrating in sport exercise psychology. “Without these opportunities, they might not learn how to manage their physical and emotional health in positive ways, potentially leading to long-term health disparities. “
Post-camp surveys from Spring 2024 revealed a significant impact: 96% of participants reported increased confidence and knowledge about being active, 83% learned strategies for emotional regulation, and 100% had fun. The organizers are hoping for similar feedback this year, further augmenting the need to expand Active Girls – Healthy Girls programming.
AGHG on the Go
Active Girls – Healthy Girls collaborated with app developer Spring Spot to create a mobile app for participants. The free app will be available to campers for the first six months and include intentional information designed to help the campers retain lessons learned at camp.
“It includes activities we introduced during camp such as static and dynamic stretching and a dance video,” says Maslyn Behler, a second-year master’s student in kinesiology. “The app also has hydration tracking and general guidelines so they know how much they should be drinking.”
In addition to the camp and app, Active Girls – Healthy Girls will expand its partnerships throughout the year. They partnered with Greensboro Parks and Recreation in February for the National Girls and Women in Sport Day, and with Miriam P. Brenner Children’s Museum in March for a Women’s History Month event. They are actively looking for collaborators who will ensure that their programming and the spring break camp – which provides high level instruction and two meals a day – remains free to participants.
“We continue to apply for funding to extend some of our programming to different times throughout the year,” says Maher. “For people in the community that are passionate about girls’ health, wellbeing, and physical activity, this is a great way to make an impact.”
Story by Alice Manning Touchette
Photography courtesy of Active Girls — Healthy Girls
