_Happy boy Posted March 13, 2021 Posted March 13, 2021 ast year, the organization Canadian Women and Sport released a report which found that one in three girls drop out of sport by late adolescence. By comparison, the dropout rate for teenage boys (age 16-18) is only 1 in 10. The report also found that sport participation rates for Canadian girls decline steadily from childhood to adolescence, and as many as 62 per cent of girls never participate in a sport at all. Fast and Female is a Canadian charity that is looking to change those statistics. Founded in 2005 by Olympic gold medalist Chandra Crawford, the organization is on a mission to keep self-identified girls aged 8-14 healthy and active in sports by hosting national events and programs in collaboration with community partners, where girls can meet REAL (Relatable, Empowered, Active Leaders) Role Models from within their communities. The idea for Fast and Female came to Crawford when she was babysitting an eight-year-old girl named Emily, who casually mentioned that ‘it doesn’t seem like being a girl is very fun. They don’t even snowboard’. “For Emily, it was as simple as she hadn’t seen it being done, so to her it didn’t seem possible,” explains Crawford. “She hadn’t seen a woman who was a professional snowboarder.” Crawford goes on to explain that for many other girls, these barriers extend to never seeing your race, sexual identity, religion, physical disabilities, and other parts of your identity represented in sport. She adds that having role models who look like you serve as inspiration to dream bigger and try new things, and keeping girls in sport can empower them for life and give them leadership, teamwork and resiliency skills. So what’s holding girls back from realizing the benefits of sport? According to the Canadian Women and Sport report, there are a number of contributing factors, including: low self-confidence negative body image perceived lack of skill and not being welcomed Fast and Female is working hard to reverse these trends by engaging with girls to identify how to create a sense of social belonging, prioritizing their mental and physical health and providing relatable role models from within their own communities. Of course, during the pandemic, the way in which they do this has changed significantly. With their in-person events in Canmore, Toronto and The Pas, Manitoba canceled, they launched a resources page on their website, which includes downloadable activity sheets and links for initiatives from their REAL Role Models and sister organizations. They also launched a brand new program called ‘Girl, You Got This — Run/Walk/Wheel,’ to encourage their community to get moving that includes a private Facebook group where the girls can interact with their REAL Role Models, and for the first time ever, they hosted their annual summit virtually. Since their first event in 2005, Fast and Female has been able to empower 19,533 girls across Canada by connecting them with over 700 REAL Role Models. Still, they recognize that the inequalities and systemic barriers for girls and women reach far beyond sport culture, and they affect racialized and marginalized po[CENSORED]tions more than others. “Our mission can’t be realized until we address these injustices and oppression and make meaningful change,” says Crawford. If you want to get involved in the organization, you can donate to their events and programming, or you can apply to become a REAL Role Model by clicking here.
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