Boost targets girls to get them into physical activity

• Author: David Beck
• Published date: 10 March 2022
• Publication title: Taupo Weekender

The Tania Dalton Foundation’s (TDF) Boost programme is run during the school holidays and is targeted at girls who may have an interest in sport or physical activity but do not play on a regular basis

TDF programme coordinator Ant Hyde says Boost is a three-day, active recreation programme for Year 7 and 8 girls.

“It’s not for the sporty girls. It’s for the girls who maybe have an interest in being active but for various reasons they aren’t,” he says. “They might not exercise on a regular basis, but they might want to.”

Girls can apply for the programme, which can take up to 30 participants, and it is free for successful applicants.

“Over the three days they do nine different sports and activities. They’ll do netball, basketball and those sorts of team sports, but they’ll also do dance, they’ll go to a crossfit session, some cycling.

“We realised pretty early on that not all girls actually want to play sport. A lot of people, especially at that age, think that being active just means being in a sports team. It’s really not.

“Being active can be a whole range of things and that’s what we’re trying to offer these girls.”

Hyde says there can be a number of reasons girls this age haven’t been more active previously.

“We’ve been running this programme for a couple of years around the North Island, this is our first one in Taupō. What usually happens is at the end the girls fill out a two-page review form on what they enjoyed doing as well as the barriers stopping them doing these things.

“Time is actually a big one, we find. Cost is another and for quite a few of them it’s family support — there has to be someone able to get them somewhere. There has to be some sort of adult drive initially to get the child going.

“After each programme, I email each parent individually, tell them what their child enjoyed and what barriers they thought they might have to doing it. Then we start that discussion about how we can break down those barriers.

“We don’t just...