Studies show that girls between the ages of eight and twelve are still receptive to adult influence, while beginning to feel peer pressure.  It's an age psychologists call the latency period of development when girls begin to confront important life and relationship issues.  As a prevention program, Girls on the Run initiates healthy decision making about difficult issues and really talking to their parents/caretakers before it's too late.

In addition, learning healthy exercise habits early in life increases the chances that participants will value their own physical fitness as adults. Recent studies show that only those who develop exercise habits in their teen years or earlier are likely to maintain those habits for life. It's well documented that regular, moderate exercise improves cardiovascular functioning, and reduces the risk of developing breast cancer, osteoporosis (brittle bones), and obesity. In addition, girls of this age are more open to the positive peer influences, positive adult role models and the confidence enhancing which are all parts of the GOTR experience.

A variation of the Girls on the Run program - Girls on Track - has proven positive with middle school participants.

"Children's bodies are well suited for endurance exercise, and numerous studies have shown that children show many positive physiological adaptation to endurance exercise training.  The keys are gradual progression and common-sense adult supervision.  If those conditions are met, running 3 miles is a reasonable goal for most young people."

from Russell R. Pate, Ph.D. with the Department of Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina

Our program is a lot more than a running program. Part of our goal is to establish a network of community based organizations which work together to achieve our mission. In addition, we believe that the style and manner in which our curricula are delivered is just as important as the content of the lessons.  Coaches (group facilitators) do not have to be top rate runners or athletes, but they do have to possess good facilitation skills, an ability to develop rapport with the girls and a sense of fun. They also have to be careful to not let any of their own "girl issues" interfere with their ability to deliver a top notch program. Attendance at a training allows you to understand the philosophy of the program, examine some of your own "girl-box" issues while at the same time fine-tuning your facilitation skills.  Plus, the training sessions are a lot of fun and fully prepare you to deliver a life-changing program.

Each community is different. The best way to get started is to create a steering committee - a diverse group of people in your community who are interested in bringing Girls on the Run to your town. They will be a great resource for funding ideas and will help you spread the word about Girls on the Run. More specifically, grants are a great way to get started. If you're working with a school, you may have access to state and federal education grants. Drug prevention and obesity prevention grants are also good fits for Girls on the Run. In addition to grants, try to connect with local community organizations and other businesses who may have an interest in seeing Girls on the Run in your town. They are a good source of sponsorship dollars as well as in-kind donations.

We have piloted a boys program within our Charlotte, NC Council for several years now which unfortunately has had little or no success. In early 2005 we were faced with the decision to cancel the pilot program due to lack of interest and have also decided to not roll out the boys program to our other councils within the United States. Although it was a difficult decision to make, we could not continue to allocate resources towards an unsuccessful program.

We have seen that the boys’ interest in the program is not nearly as strong as the girls’ interest. Many times we found that it was not the boy’s but the parent’s decision to join the program, which resulted in a lack of motivation to become committed to the entire program. We have also had a great deal of trouble recruiting and retaining male coaches for the program. Although we would certainly welcome and encourage women to be involved as volunteers and assistant coaches, because of the nature of some of the topics within the lessons, we believe strongly that a male mentor would be more appropriate to serve within the head coach role, just as we do with women in the Girls on the Run program. We have been very disappointed in the amount of support from participants, volunteers and sponsors - all of which are fundamental to having a successful program.

We hope that the support needed to have a successful program will present itself in the future. We will continue to have Boys on the Run in our long range plan. It is our wish that one day we have a program equally as successful for boys as we have for girls.