Sen. Brendan Crighton has secured $50,000 from the State’s fiscal year 2026 budget for the Greater Boston chapter of Girls on the Run (GOTR) to support social-emotional learning and empowerment programming for girls in grades 3-8 in his Third Essex Senate district.
GOTR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization designed to enhance participants’ social, emotional, and physical skills to successfully navigate life experiences. GOTR’s fun, interactive lessons meet the unique needs of participants of all abilities and backgrounds. GOTR’s mission is to “inspire girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.
“Children today are exposed to longstanding gender stereotypes, societal obstacles, and cultural challenges that can be detrimental to their emotional and physical health,” GOTR wrote on its website. “Our program helps girls recognize their potential and rise above limiting gender expectations. Girls on the Run programs are about so much more than running. They make an impact at a critical age when confidence and physical activity decline.”
The funding will support expansion of GOTR programming throughout Lynn, Lynnfield, Marblehead, Nahant, Saugus, and Swampscott, and it will provide scholarships for participants, coach training, and program materials.
“Sen. Crighton continues to be a champion for girls in his district, ensuring they can discover and activate their limitless potential,” said Cyndi Roy Gonzalez, GOTR Greater Boston’s executive director. “Through this program, participants grow more confident, become more physically active, and gain a new perspective on what is possible. We are incredibly grateful for the senator’s ongoing commitment at a critical time for girls today.”
GOTR Greater Boston serves more than 4,000 girls in grades 3-8 throughout Eastern Massachusetts each year, and it has reached over 17,000 girls since its inception in 2010. Its research-backed curriculum helps the girls develop critical life skills and increases their physical activity through dynamic discussions, games, and movement-based activities.
Independent studies show 97% of participants learned critical life skills, including conflict, helping others, and making intentional decisions; 97% of participants agree they can be themselves at GOTR; and there is a 40% increase in physical activity among girls who were least active at the program’s start.
GOTR focuses on girls’ physical and mental health through games that connect the two, such as friendship freeze tag. GOTR takes the well-known game of freeze tag and asks the girls to say something positive about the person they are tagging as they are tagged in order for the freeze to go into effect. Girls may shout out “kind,” “smart,” “confident,” or a plethora of other compliments in order to ensure their target is tagged.
GOTR is included as a top research-based program in a Social-Emotional Learning Guide developed by researchers at Harvard University and has been recognized by the National Afterschool Association as one of the most influential after-school programs.
At the end of GOTR Greater Boston’s spring and fall seasons, there is a celebratory 5K where girls and their buddies – volunteers who run alongside the participants, motivating them to keep going – complete 3.1 miles at their “happy pace.”
The goal is not for the girls to achieve an unrealistic goal or set an unrealistic running pace. The goal is for the girls to complete the 5K – whether that be through running, walking, skipping, or cartwheeling their way across the finish line – to instill them with confidence and a sense of accomplishment.
GOTR’s fall season will start the week of Sept. 21. Those interested in registering their girl or coaching the program should reach out to the local GOTR Greater Boston staff for more information. Registration can be found on the GOTR Greater Boston website at girlsontherunboston.org.
“I’m proud to support the outstanding work that Girls on the Run Greater Boston does to invest in the social-emotional learning and growth of elementary and middle school girls so that they achieve their goals,” Crighton said. “Through this funding, GOTR will be able to build upon their existing programming to reach more students and continue to make an incredible impact on the lives of these students.”
