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Apr 21, 2022
Hello, Texoma!
I am thrilled to share with you another installment in our ongoing series highlighting THF grantees. These organizations make a powerful impact within our community in their own distinctive ways. You can directly support their services by giving to THF’s Community Fund. When THF receives a donation to the community fund, 100% of those funds go back to the community through grants and giving. Thank you for helping us make a difference right here in Texoma – every single day.
- The THF Team
Did you know that by the time a girl reaches the age of 10 her confidence drops about twice as much as boys’? In the last two years, the added stressors of COVID-19 isolation and anxiety have affected girls even more. Girls on the Run of Southern Oklahoma, a Texas Health Foundation grantee, exists to inspire all girls to “build confidence and make intentional decisions while fostering care and compassion for self and others.”
Girls on the Run of Southern Oklahoma is a local council of the nationwide non-profit organization, Girls on the Run (GOTR). In Southern Oklahoma, GOTR serves third through eighth graders across seven local counties, helping them develop life skills like decision-making, confidence, and conflict resolution while creatively addressing physical and mental health through running and walking.
“We are a social-emotional learning program that incorporates activity,” says Shana Hammond, Council Director of Girls on the Run of Southern Oklahoma. “Even though ‘run’ is in the title [of our organization], we do not require the girls to be runners. We incorporate walking or running because it is important to stay active.”
GOTR of Southern Oklahoma was founded in 2013 and consists of three main programs:
Each program weaves together the core curriculum of social and emotional life skills with physical activity. “We are here to teach life skills: how to stand up for yourself and others, how to get rid of negative self-talk, how to find your star power – what’s inside of you that can make your cloudy days sunny,” says Hammond. “That way, when you do have those cloudy days, you have the tools to navigate through it.”
The lessons girls learn through the program aren’t just beneficial now, they are lifelong lessons that young girls and women of all ages can use now and into their future. “I’ve been surprised what I’ve gotten out of the program as an adult. Not just from the curriculum but from the girls! Some of them are only 8 or 9 years old, and they will answer in ways that are so insightful,” Hammond shares. “The curriculum is created and formatted for young girls, but women of all ages can use the lessons.”
These programs align with the mission of the Texoma Health Foundation by reaching girls during a crucial time of their physical and emotional development. Outreach into THF’s more rural areas can be difficult, and with so many diverse income levels and access abilities, ensuring that girls and their families even know the program exists to serve them can be challenging.
The THF grant allows GOTR of Southern Oklahoma to serve young girls in Bryan and Marshall Counties. It also allows them to employ an outreach coordinator who not only helps recruit volunteer coaches but also engages with local schools to create awareness around the program and the resources it can provide to girls in the area.
GOTR of Southern Oklahoma is no doubt making a tangible difference in the lives of local girls in the community, and it shows in their eyes and on their faces when they are able to achieve a goal they may have never thought possible.
“My favorite part is at the end of each season when the girls do a celebration 5K,” Hammond says. “To see our girls line up at the start with so much excitement, and then when they come across the finish line, they are exhausted but they still have smiles on their faces and we can say, ‘Look what you just did!’”
Texoma Health Foundation is proud to share in the important work Girls on the Run of Southern Oklahoma is doing in our community through the THF community grant.
To donate to THF’s Community Fund or learn more about our Texoma Giving Partners visit www.texomagivingpartners.org To learn more about Girls on the Run of Southern Oklahoma’s programs, check out their website.
