Founding Story:
In 2000 the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Board of Trustees was meeting to review the impact of their work. Everybody was celebrating the research that revealed how far we had come; when the Foundation was created, one in 27 girls was physically active. Thirty years later the statistics reported that one in three girls was physically active. Founder Billie Jean King raised the question, “What about those other two girls?” GoGirlGo! was launched in order to increase participation opportunities so that all girls can experience the positive impacts of physical activity.
About Us:
Chicago is a cosmopolitan city of class and culture. But beyond the glamour of the Gold Coast and the marquee events at Millennium Park, there is a side of this city that—while not always visible—desperately needs to be seen.
The health of our girls is in a state of crisis. Sedentary lifestyles, inadequate nutrition and poor behavioral choices threaten the physical and emotional well-being of girls in the metro Chicago area. From the North Shore to the South Shore, girls suffer from low self-esteem, obesity unintended pregnancy and severe inactivity. But these trends don’t have to be the defining characteristics of our communities, and thanks to local programs’ involvement in GoGirlGo!, positive change is already underway.