To celebrate International Women’s Day, Goals4Girls worked in partnership with Adidas and online crowdfunding platform IFundWomen to raise funds for the programme’s mentorship scheme, all in aid of helping young women break down barriers associated with gender stereotypes and mental health.
Our Founder & CEO of Goals4Girls, Francesca Brown, was flown out to NYC back in February to meet the IFundWomen team as well as other female-led organisations receiving backing from Adidas. Here she met tennis superstar, female rights activist and living legend Billie Jean King, check out the video here.
‘Girls supporting Girls!’ is a mantra practised daily at Goals4Girls. Recently a group of participants actioned social change by petitioning for their school’s football pitch to be open to both boys and girls at break and lunch time(s).
Recognising the gender imbalance, some of the Goals4Girls participants brought the issue to more young women outside of the Goals4Girls programme.
They were shocked to discover their peers assumed the football pitch was there only for male students to use during break and lunch time(s), not happy with this, the girls created a petition, recruited more to support the cause and presented their findings to the school’s Senior Leadership Team.
As a result of their actions, they were awarded pitch time every Tuesday and now have a safe, inclusive space – supported by female Sports Leaders – to play football!
The Adidas X IFundWomen campaign is vital for ensuring this type of social action is continued.
G4G will receive direct investment from Adidas to contribute to its long-term growth and development as well as continued mentorship from IFundWomen – the only crowdfunding ecosystem designed to support, mentor, and invest in women who reimagine sport – for the next year.
Along with financial backing, Adidas surprised some of our participants with a visit from ex-England and Chelsea striker, Eniola Aluko. To say the girls were ecstatic is a total understatement!
You can watch the IWD campaign video with Adidas and Eniola Aluko in full here.