Why are Girls in the Game's sports & fitness, health education, and life skills programs needed in your community?

• Youth obesity rates have reached alarming levels:  In 1970, only one out of every 21 girls was obese or overweight; today, that figure is one in six (National Center for Health Statistics, 2002).

• Physical activity makes a difference!: Just an extra hour of exercise a week could cut obesity significantly among overweight girls, according to a study that researchers say could lead to major changes in the way schools fight the problem ("Study: Schools could trim girls' obesity with more PE," Chicago Tribune, September 7, 2004).

• It can prevent teenage smoking: In grades 9-12, 29.5 percent of female students report current tobacco use (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2002.) Female athletes on one or two school or community sports teams were significantly less likely to smoke regularly than female non-athletes (Melnick et al, 2001).

• It reduces the risk of breast cancer: One to three hours of exercise a week over a women's reproductive lifetime (the teens to about age 40) may bring a 20-30 percent  reduction in the risk of breast cancer, and four or more hours of exercise a week can reduce the risk by almost 40 percent (Bernstein et al, 1994).

• It can reduce sexual activity: Female athletes are less likely to be sexually active, in part because they tend to be more concerned about getting pregnant than female non-athletes (Dodge & Jaccard, 2002).

• It can fight depression: Women and girls who participate in regular exercise suffer lower rates of depression (Nicoloff and Schwenk, 1995; Page and Tucker, 1994).

• Healthy kids learn better!: The positive educational impacts of school sports were just as strong for girls as for boys including self-concept, educational aspirations in the senior year, school attendance, math and science enrollment, time spent on homework, and taking honors courses (Marsh, 1993).

• Why youth physical activity?: Preventing the onset of obesity is more effective than reversing its course.  Sports and fitness participation increases confidence and self-esteem, which are inversely related to being overweight or obese.  Increased physical activity results in increased self-esteem for pre-adolescents (Women's Sports Foundation, 2001). 

Girls in the Game provides and promotes sports & fitness opportunities, health education and leadership development to enhance the overall health and well-being of all girls.  Since its inception in 1995, GIG has directly served over 10,000 girls!  GIG's programs, offered city-wide and in surrounding suburbs, empower girls to make better decisions with regards to their overall health.