LLR Girls Can - Partner

Welcome to This Girl Can, the award-winning campaign funded by the National Lottery that seeks to tell the real stories of women who get active or play sport.

By joining our #LLRGirlsCan community, you are helping to get women and girls active across the country – and close the gender activity gap.

With you, we can reshape women's experiences to welcome all women with open arms.

With you, we can challenge one another to act on women's needs.

With you, we can change so that no woman is left behind.

With you, we can make a real difference to how women experience activity.

So, let's do this. There are thousands of phenomenal women out there who need you right now.

With you, LLR Girls Can.

We call this the enjoyment gap. And it's up to all of us to close it.

The enjoyment gap is not inevitable and is completely fixable by challenging the practical and structural obstacles that make activity feel less welcoming for women.

We need your help to focus on making activity more safe, social, self-affirming and suitable for women and girls, to reshape their experiences and challenge one another to act on their needs. With you, we can make a real difference to how women and girls experience activity. No- one knows your community, team and members better than you!

Watch the This Girl Can With You video below and find out how you can close the enjoyment gap here.

Individuals like to feel as if they belong and have an attachment to others, and over 50% of women say that the social side of activity is something they enjoy. 'Good' leaders in this area are likely to be trustworthy, supportive of dialogue and change, innovative and foster inclusion.

So, our ask to you it to think how you can make your offering more sociable. And this doesn't have to be a complete reinvention of what you're doing or cost thousands of pounds. Sometimes its just the little things that count. Like getting to know your members or making sure that there is the physical space for people to participate.

A range of practical and emotional barriers (particularly issues around time/ money/ family commitments / life priorities) make it difficult for women to increase the amount of physical activity and exercise they do.

We would like you to reflect on how you can make you offering more suitable on both an individual and collective level by seeing things from the lives of women. For example, could you do more to adapt timetables to women's lives? Could you also include an online offering that fits into her schedule? Could you offer crèche's in gyms or studios for childcare while she is active? How can we shift to think of female customers needs first?

Being active is an opportunity for self-expression and acceptance. 'Self-affirming' activities should help to put the focus on feeling good about moving, rather than on competition or looking good. This particularly relates to the way activity is marketed and encourages marketing to women to reflect this too, building on the idea that there is no 'right way' to be active.

Think about what you could do to change the way that you speak to women. What images will you use in your marketing? How can you adapt your offering? What can you do to make women from different backgrounds feel welcome?

22% of women agree that they worry about risk or threat of sexual harassment in relation to doing sport and physical activity with levels of worry are higher amongst women aged between 16 – 30. It is a barrier to physical activity, with many women feeling unable to enjoy activities as a result.

We all need to do more, no matter how trivial it may seem, to help women overcome these barriers. Something as simple and posting travel routes or creating women only spaces throughout the week can have a dramatic impact. But these must be done in combination robust measures in place that make your spaces and the people who take part feel safe at all times.