Girls on the Run: Mentoring group comes to Memphis
More than 125 people gathered July 19 in the Church Health Community Room for a cocktails and conversation event to kick off the inaugural season of the Memphis chapter of Girls on the Run (GOTR).
The nonprofit organization, geared toward girls in grades 3-8, teaches life skills through interactive lessons and running games. The program culminates with a celebratory 5K.
“We wanted an opportunity to share what Girls on the Run was about and why we thought it was important to bring it to Memphis,” said Joanna Lip-
man, executive director of GOTR Memphis. “The theme for the evening was ‘The Finish Line is Just the Beginning’ and played to our vision for the organization — that every girl has limitless potential to live a full, healthy and successful life.”
Lipman said GOTR is a “mentoring group disguised as a running club.”
“We focus on building confidence and self-esteem by working towards running a 5K,” she said.
Girls on the Run in Memphis schools
Starting this fall, the 12-week GOTR program will be instituted in three area schools: Sharpe Elementary, Kate Bond Middle and Hutchison School. Lipman said these schools were chosen based on the following criteria:
❚ They have a strong history of successful community partnerships.
❚ They have a mission to provide their girls with every opportunity to develop their inner strengths and build their character.
❚ They have someone on their staff willing to step up and take a risk with the program for the first season.
The national GOTR program has a 20-year track record, with approximately 200,000 girls going through the program each year. Designed to catch girls at what the organization has identified as a “critical age” of 9 or 10 years old, the goal is to provide tools to help girls build their character, gain more competent life skills, understand relationships and find their own unique strengths.
GOTR Memphis will be offered as an after-school program, with one track for elementary school students and another for middle schoolers.
“We start with giving the girls a 200page activities book filled with a variety of lessons and an outline of everything they are going to do for the next 12 weeks,” Lipman said. “The running part is woven into the lessons as a tool to help girls understand what it means to reach their potential. We don’t stress what they are doing, but why they are doing it (i.e., how it makes a person feel good, how it helps manage stress).”
Sixty to 80 girls are expected to participate during the program’s first year, Lipman said.
Once implemented, GOTR Memphis will be run by “coaches.” The group of onsite coaches consists of school administrators and teachers, heads of physical education departments and school counselors, as well as parents and other community members who have volunteered. At each location, the coaches have gone through specific training to teach the program. They also are CPR certified and have successfully completed background checks.
“Our GOTR coaches have completed an online training component of how to serve as a mentor for girls, as well as how to deliver the program curriculum so that it is inspiring, respectful and memorable,” Lipman said. “We teach them how to communicate with the girls and their families and identify available resources.”
With GOTR in more than 200 cities across the United States, some collegeaged girls at Rhodes College went through the program in their own home communities and are now signing up to help implement the program in Memphis.
Additionally, some high-schoolers have signed on as coaches.
“Older students will serve as ‘junior coaches’ — mentors to the younger girls and assistants to adult coaches,” Lipman said. “The experience can be used for required community service hours.”
There will be a fee to participate in GOTR, but the goal is for any girl, regardless of her ability to pay, to have the opportunity to participate, said Jenny Koltnow, a GOTR Memphis board member.
“That means we have to have fundraising that is spot on,” Koltnow said. “It is our partnerships that have allowed us to bring this program to Memphis.”
Companies that have provided funds to help get the program off the ground include AutoZone and Cigna, Koltnow said. Other partners include Athleta, Hutchison School, Shelby County Schools, Shelby Farms (for the 5K) and Spark Printing, she said.
Lipman said she expects to pick up the pace as the program rolls out this fall.
“Before we even hung our shingle out on social media, there were already other schools saying that they wanted this program” Lipman said. “And community centers are asking about participating too.”