SHE FLIES: How Sport Oregon Aims To Support, Engage And Celebrate Girls And Women’s Sports Participation Through New Initiative - Sport Oregon Voices
Sport Oregon Voices:
Sport Oregon Foundation initiative to mark official launch with virtual event on April 29
This month, Sport Oregon is launching its new foundation initiative, SHE FLIES, inspired by a fundamental belief that, through sports, we learn to soar as confident individuals, team players and strong leaders. A nod to Oregon’s state motto of “She Flies With Her Own Wings,” the initiative’s aim is to foster safe community spaces where all girls and women have equitable opportunities and are greater empowered to use sports to take flight and realize the many benefits that participation provides.
The initiative, officially announced this week, will kick off with a virtual launch event on Thursday, April 29. The event will feature a host of informational content about SHE FLIES and a panel discussion with female athletes from a variety of backgrounds and ages – ranging from high school to professional athletes – to discuss their experiences, from successes to challenges, and why they have stayed active in their participation. Destiny Rodriguez of West Linn High School — an Oregon State Champion and U15 National and World Champion in wrestling, ranked as one of the top girls wrestlers in the nation by USA Wrestling — has been announced as the events’ featured high school athlete speaker, and the remaining featured guests will be unveiled leading up to the event on Sport Oregon social media.
A primary goal of this initial event is to begin to define and engage the community that hopefully will become the SHE FLIES audience. While the event is free to anyone who wants to join in, the event is particularly suited for three primary groups. Those groups include participants (those participating in sports now, including those who may be at greater risk of disengaging); influencers (parents, coaches, leadership and decision-makers around the culture of sports); and supporters, which includes anyone who cares about the issue of keeping more girls engaged in sport and wants to get involved to help make a difference.
Sport Oregon sees great value in utilizing its unique platform to unite these groups through its launch event and beyond, and, further, in building greater connections with community-based groups that are already making a difference when it comes to girls and women’s participation and equity in sports.
“We really want to bring all those people together in one virtual room to say ‘we’re all on the same page’ and educate them on what we are doing and what we want to do in the future,” said Alex Rudd, director of events and marketing for Sport Oregon.
One of the challenges is that while information is available and evidence of the issue of the inequity and disparity in sports opportunities is apparent, it is not as widely recognized and known as it could be. This is a big component that Sport Oregon ultimately hopes to address through its work with SHE FLIES.
“There are so many groups out there – some tiny, some small, some large – that are doing great and impactful things,” said Rudd. “As Sport Oregon, we’re in this unique position where we have so many different facets of the community within the Sport Oregon family. So, we hear snippets of these conversations in so many different forms and at so many different levels. Now, we want to use our collective network to bring all these groups together to work in a more efficient way.
“And if we can elevate and amplify things that are already being done to a new audience, that would be success for us.”
Sport Oregon’s commitment to engaging more girls and women through the initiative includes three main programming pieces. A substantial component is the start of a grant program that will be open to community programming groups throughout the state already addressing the barriers girls face and trying to solve these issues on the ground. While it’s a piece that will be further refined following the April 29 virtual event, the grant program is slated to launch this fall with growing influence and input from an expanded group of community and external committee members. Additionally, Sport Oregon is introducing a community awards nomination campaign to recognize individuals for their achievements, leadership, and unique stories in sports. The intent of the awards is to elevate the accomplishments of girls and women in sport throughout the community, while inspiring new conversations about how to better engage or support girls and women in sports.
Those two pieces will come together with an annual SHE FLIES Celebration that brings together sports leaders and coaches, participants and supporters to empower girls and women in sports. The annual celebration will include a number of highlight activities, including a platform to celebrate accomplishments, educate, inspire and raise funds for future grant program cycles. The April 29 virtual event launch will serve as the initial iteration of the celebration event, but future plans call for a robust in-person event that builds each year and includes a growing list of partners and like-minded groups on the issue of engagement.
Rolling Up The Sleeves
Already full of great ideas and the motivation to really make an impact through its established platform, Sport Oregon started the SHE FLIES program by first building a community committee that included a strong base of Sport Oregon board members.
“From that initial community feedback group, we grew a lot of the ideas, a lot of suggestions for the particular women we’re engaging for our discussion. So it’s really been a collective effort,” said Rudd.
Rudd says that, bolstered by the upcoming launch event, the goal is to grow this committee to include more external membership. The group will be heavily involved with deciding the future direction of the projects taken on through the initiative, and in helping shape the community grant program by making equitable decisions in determining how best to support groups throughout the state.
SHE FLIES includes three pillar areas of focus. With girls being twice as likely to drop out of sports by age 14 than boys and participation rates ranking statistically lower for girls of color or from low-income households, a key focus area is that of “keeping girls in the game.” Secondly, the initiative aims to empower women coaches, with statistics showing less than 30 percent of youth coaches being women. Thirdly, SHE FLIES strives to inspire a “fitness-for-life” mentality, encouraging a life-long pursuit in sports and of staying healthy through regular exercise.
While looking to establish and define the audience, a strong system of support within the Sport Oregon community already exists, with founding partners of the initiative – some not traditionally associated with sports – being equally passionate about the efforts. Hyphn, a company that delivers innovative workplace solutions for organizations, is just one example of a like-minded entity already partnered with Sport Oregon that has enthusiastically joined in its commitment to the growing SHE FLIES initiative.
“The life impact of engaging in sports is well known, but equity in access to participate does not exist,” said Shastan Jee, principal and general manager with Hyphn. “That is why SHE FLIES’ goal of supporting and engaging girls and women in sports really resonates with our team at Hyphn. Building community is a core value of Hyphn's, especially through promoting equity and inclusion. We are a team that likes to get out and get involved, and the ideas percolating in the minds of the Sport Oregon team really got us excited about how SHE FLIES could make a significant impact in the community.”
This DIY mentality is broadly evident and reflective of not only the desire to make an impact through initiatives like this, but the ever-increasing need to do so in this day and age.
“Now more than ever, people really have that spirit of rolling up their sleeves and figuring out how we can move forward – even if it’s baby steps – to actually make an impact,” Rudd said, “because everything that was already a challenge and an issue of inequitable access has only become worse in the past year, year and a half now. So I think there’s a sense of urgency, too, another reason we’ve really pushed ourselves to make this commitment.”
To Get Involved
To register or to learn more about the Sport Oregon Foundation’s SHE FLIES virtual event launch – which will take place Thursday, April 29 from 4-5 p.m. – click here.
Tell Us Your Story
Sport Oregon is encouraging those wanting to help uplift and inspire the girls around us to share their own personal stories of how sports have had a positive impact on their life. Click here for more information or to submit your inspirational stories.
