Women in Sport - Big Sister Project

In April 2022, with funding from DCMS and in partnership with Places Leisure, Places Foundation and Hey Girls, Women in Sport launched the Big Sister project. Big Sister aims to empower and support teenage girls to enjoy sport, exercise and physical activity during puberty and their teenage years.

Big Sister seeks to tackle affordability and economic exclusion through free leisure and fitness memberships for girls in areas of deprivation in the project locations and the provision of an online suite of workout classes for girls to access nationwide.

The project also seeks to remove emotional and practical barriers relating to puberty and periods to allow girls to participate in sport and exercise, tackling period poverty and stigma amongst the girls and the local communities by providing free sanitary products for girls in areas of deprivation as well as providing physical and digital resources to equip girls with the knowledge, information and support they need to engage with sport and exercise during puberty. The project also supports volunteer ‘Big Sister’ ambassadors to connect with and support girls and educates sports leaders to be confident in supporting girls to be active during puberty, understanding the barriers they face and providing resources to continue to develop knowledge and understanding.

In July 2022 Women in Sport approached Sport Structures with the workforce need of a Project Manager to support the delivery of Big Sister through to April 2023. Sport Structures was able to provide an experienced project manager to fulfil the role three days a week in order to deliver the project. The project manager was responsible for managing stakeholder relationships, operational decision-making, monitoring & evaluation, budgeting & finances as well as quarterly DCMS reporting.

The project was an overriding success:

• 3,267 girls using Big Sister gym memberships
• 55,509 visits to participating leisure centres from Big Sister members
• 19,380 women and girls supported through the availability of free-to-all period products
• 127 sport leaders trained
• 68 local community partners and 61 local schools engaged
• 1m+ Instagram impressions and 8,400 digital hub users
• Girls taking part reported feeling more confident, active and happier than they were before the project