The main goal of the Go Girls! Program is to develop an appreciation of the benefits of an active, healthy, lifestyle among girls’ aged 12 to 14.  In addition, the program strives to achieve the following key objectives:

·         To support girls and young women in choosing to maintain a healthy active lifestyle;

·         To provide girls and young women with the tools and information they need to choose to lead and maintain a healthy lifestyle;

·         To enhance competence, confidence and self esteem of girls and young women regarding healthy active living; and

·         To build the leadership and life skills all program participants.

The Go Girls! Program consists of 7 mentoring sessions conducted over a 7-10 week period.  Each session is 1.5-2 hours in length and is held after school, within school facilities.   Each session is structured around the three Go Girls! themes: active living, balanced eating, and feeling good about oneself.  As such, each session consists of various physical activities, a snack break, and discussion.

Thanks to in kind support from the local Health Unit, schools, Sexual Assault Centre, and others, the cost to our agency to run the program is only $50.00 per child, not including staff time.  As an agency that is not funded by the government, even this amount can be a challenge, and we are fortunate to have great community partners, such as General Mills, to help offset this cost.

With the support of CHEO’s Centre of Excellence, we have also been able to develop an Outcome Evaluation Tool which we have implemented with your financial support last year. While it is early to be quoting results (only a few sessions have been captured in the data so far), we will be able to start reviewing the outcomes in a more effective manner in late 2010.

In the 2004 Health Status Report, it was identified that Lanark, Leeds & Grenville’s rates of Chronic Disease is above that of the provincial average, and as an agency serving children and families, programming that addresses lifestyle concerns is important.

We would like to thank General Mills for their continued support.