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EMPOWERING GIRLS THROUGH SKATEBOARDING!

by SkatePhilly

SkatePhilly is organizing an after-school skateboarding club to teach middle-school girls how to skate at their local skatepark!

If you are a skater, you already know that skateboarding has the power to change lives. It is a sport that builds community, creativity, mental and physical strength, and is simply incredibly fun. Skateboarding can teach life lessons such as perseverance and confidence -- things much needed in today’s pressure-cooker society.

But skateboarding continues to be an overwhelmingly male sport, with girls and women accounting for only 17% of the people who regularly skate.  Girls’ sports programs are needed to actively fight barriers: by the age of 14, girls drop out of sports twice as often as boys, due to social stigma, lack of access, safety and transportation issues, costs, and lack of positive role models. Without strategic and supportive programs to introduce girls to skating, the gender imbalance will never resolve itself.

Harding Middle School girls can see the newly renovated Whitehall Skatepark from the front door of their school, but it’s likely they never dared venture to the park to try it themselves. Learning to skate can be seriously intimidating for anyone, but for a girl without a skateboard, safety gear, or skate mentors, it’s essentially impossible.  

 

WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO:  

Through a partnership with Skate the Foundry, skate coaches will support the girls through an 8-week program designed to teach basic skate skills, getting comfortable at the skate park,  and strengthening friendships that will last long after the program ends.  Through skateboarding, the girls will explore their physical and mental capabilities.

Each girl who participates in the program will earn her own skateboard so she can keep pushing and progressing!

 

DONATIONS ARE CRITICAL:

Your donation will enable SkatePhilly to offer this program to the skaters for FREE. This is critical because 100% of the students at Harding are economically disadvantaged.  The median household income at the school is less than half the national average.   

Funds you donate will be used to pay for instructors and administration of the program, clearances,  safety gear, skateboards, and insurance. Money raised above and beyond the cost of the afterschool program will be used to create a new SkatePhilly Girls Fund,  for future skate programs in Philly geared to girls, women, and trans* skaters.  

Companies who can donate skate gear or would like to sponsor the club, please contact SkatePhilly directly by emailing [email protected]!