- Welcome to "Inland Edition", where this season, we're having conversations with people who represent nonprofit organizations working to make the Inland Empire a better place.

My name is Joe Richardson.

I'm a local attorney, Inland Empire resident and your host.

And today, we're going to chat with Molly Widdicombe, Girls on the Run, Riverside.

Girls on the Run aims to inspire girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident by using a fun experience-based [light background music] curriculum that creatively integrates running.

The organization's trained coaches use physical activity and dynamic discussion to build social, emotional and physical skills, as well as healthy life habits.

With a career spanning three decades in education, development and social services, Molly Widdicombe is known for motivating teams to work towards significant causes.

As the council director for Girls on the Run, she oversees community volunteer coaches and manages new programs, including the seasonal 5K runs.

Let's meet her, and learn more about how Girls on the Run is impacting our Inland Empire youth.

[soft piano music] ♪ [gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Joe] So, from Girls On the Run, Riverside, I am happy to be with Molly Widdicombe, the council director, right?

- [Molly] Mm hm.

- Okay.

So, I already know you have great taste in workout places, that's an inside joke!

(Molly laughs) I wanna talk a little bit about your process in terms of, is there an "aha moment" for you that gets you on the path of public service?

You're doing something- - [Molly] Sure.

- you're incredibly passionate about.

We're totally gonna get into that, but tell us how you got on this path?

- Yeah, yeah.

So, that's a great question Joe, and thank you for asking it right out of the gate.

So, really for me, I was involved in higher-ed, development work, fundraising.

Loved that, up until the moment I didn't.

And, my "aha moment" came when I was not feeling so physically well myself and really wanted to make a change personally.

- Right.

- As I was doing that, I realized it was affecting me mentally in a very positive way.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, that perhaps, I could make a career change after my midlife, I'll say.

- Right.

- And so, yeah.

I really was seeking out something very, very different from what I had done before.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, I took an intentional break from work for several months.

I went on a running retreat with a bunch of women.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, as we were running, several of them were talking about Girls on the Run.

- Really?

- I had never heard of it.

They were from the East Coast.

So, I got home and I looked it up and found out that we had it right here in the Inland Empire.

And so, I reached out and said, "How can I get involved?"

- Unbelievable.

So, tell us about the mission of the organization.

There's some great things here, but I want you to jump into that, however you wanna jump into it.

- Yeah, sure.

So, at Girls On the Run, Riverside, our mission is simply to inspire girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident.

- Right, wow.

- And, that's it.

And, we do it through our programs.

We have three different programs.

But, really, we're teaching the girls about being joyful and confident in themselves in a healthy way.

So, giving them those social emotional skills that they need as they grow through life.

And then, also, physically, you know, bringing them to a place where they feel good about themselves.

We're playing a lot.

We're doing activities that just get them moving out in the sunshine and they just feel really good.

- Now, there's a Girls on the Run International.

So, talk about the connection- - Oh, yeah.

- between international and local.

Sometimes, these places that have a lot of branches.

Are you guys all your own separate 501(c)(3)'s?

- Yeah.

- Are you part of the mother ship?

I mean, how does that go?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, great question too, because Girls on the Run International was started by a mom, of course, back almost 30 years ago.

- Right.

- She was just running with her daughter, who was a teenager at the time, and she realized they were opening up a lot of conversations between mother and daughter that maybe they wouldn't have if they weren't outdoors exercising.

So then, a few friends started to join in this group and they would sit under a tree afterwards.

And, the founder of Girls on the Run then said, "I think this is a thing."

So, she created the original program and the curriculum that we know today.

- Right.

- So, we have councils.

There are 166 councils across the United States and Canada now.

- [Joe] 166.

- So, we are in every state.

And, Girls on the Run, Riverside was started because the international organization did some market research and looked and said, "You know, this Inland Empire "in California, there's a need there."

- Right.

- "There's a lot of people who live there, a lot of girls."

And so, that's really how it was started.

They reached out to some local people.

Started a board of directors in 2019.

We got set to open our proverbial doors in March of 2020.

- Wow!

(chuckles) - [Molly] Yeah!

- So, hold that thought.

Let me ask you- - Yes!

this though really fast!

I'm cheatin' a little bit here!

- [Molly] Okay!

- The life skills that you guys seek to instill.

I like this 'cause they all started with the same letter.

- Mm hm!

- [Joe] Confidence, character, care, connections, and confidence.

- [Molly] Yes.

- Talk to us about that.

- Sure.

So, you know, our curriculum is intentionally designed.

What I love about it is that it's continually being tested and piloted and researched.

In fact, we're really excited.

We're gonna be starting up with a new curriculum this fall.

But, every curriculum that we use, whether it's for the girls third through fifth grade, or the older girls sixth through eighth, is designed to help them be confident, to help them learn about caring for each other.

Some of the lessons might be how do you show empathy for somebody else?

And, as we're moving our bodies-- And, maybe, we're playing freeze tag.

The girls might be tagged by a coach and they cannot move their bodies until another participant comes over and gives them a positive statement to say, you know, "I appreciate you because you're funny."

Okay.

And then, that girl gets unfrozen and she has that confidence.

And then, she goes to the next girl.

So, you know, for the younger girls, third through fifth graders?

Very concrete examples we're giving them.

The older girls?

It gets pretty deep.

We're talking a little bit more about how their relationships might grow interpersonally, with family, with friends, with potential romantic partners.

We do delve into that a little bit with the older girls.

- Oh, really?

- But, really giving them that confidence to know that they can speak up for themselves and each other.

They can show empathy in a variety of ways.

And maybe, that's, you know, helping somebody who's having a hard time at school.

So, we're constantly asking them for their own real life examples.

And then, we're giving them scenarios while we're running laps or playing games.

- For your experience, would you say-?

I mean, it sounds like to me, this is a theme.

You know, this whole series has been nonprofits.

- Mm hm.

- And one of the things that seems to kind of ring true is this whole idea that we're in the Inland Empire, this huge metropolitan area of its own.

- Yeah.

- And, we just don't get the love with the resources following.

- Yeah.

- You know?

Your organization?

International did the research and saw, "Whoa!

Here's a growth area where we need to be."

LA84 is called, "LA84."

- Mm hm!

- You know what I mean?

It's not called, San Bernardino 84, right?

- [Molly] Yeah.

- And now, they're going in your area.

Do you find that there's still this piece of the earth that a lot of folks just aren't- particularly as it pertains to nonprofit fundraising dollars- that they don't quite get?

You know, it's like a place that they drive through- - [Molly] Mm hm.

- [Joe] like nobody's here.

You know what I mean?

- Yeah.

- From a resource standpoint.

Like, there are no needs, but there's so much growth; there's so much everything.

And, that would clearly indicate a program like yours would grow.

- [Molly] Sure.

- Would be necessary.

You know?

Would be in demand.

I mean, I'm sure that's been your experience.

- [Molly] It is, and I'm really happy to say, I do feel like that has changed.

- [Joe] Right, yeah.

- That it is changing.

We're getting a little bit more notice.

And, I was talking with somebody recently about when you're a small nonprofit and you go to apply for a grant and they say, "Well, who else is supporting you?"

"Well?

Nobody, because we're brand new."

- [Joe] Right, sure.

- They wanna see who's springing.

Now, that we have a little bit of support from these school districts, then other places, other foundations are saying, "Okay, we'll support you."

- [Joe] Right.

- So, I do feel like that's changing a little bit.

- [Joe] Right.

- But, we have to be really good stewards of what we're being given.

- [Joe] Right, for sure.

- And, you know, making sure-- I mean, everybody asks, you know, "How much of your"- you know, "money goes directly to the clients you serve?"

100%!

- Right, sure.

- [Molly] You know, because we don't have an office location.

- Gotcha, okay.

- You know, we're very lean on our staff.

We rely on volunteers.

We have about 300 volunteers.

- Oh, my gosh.

Wow, that's amazing.

- So, each season, about 60 of those volunteers become full-time coaches.

And, when I say, "full-time", they're twice a week for the eight weeks.

- [Joe] Right.

- But, these people are usually working other jobs.

They might be teachers.

- [Joe] Sure.

- So, they're available after school.

Maybe, they're college students.

Maybe, they're retired people.

But, our volunteers, when we look at the national and then the California rate for a volunteer.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with this: what a volunteer is worth.

- Okay, right.

- We actually are saving about $256,000 a year.

- [Joe] Wow.

- Because of all the time that our volunteers give us.

- Wow, that's amazing.

- So, we couldn't do it!

- Right.

- So, the money that we do get goes to training those volunteers.

I have a storage unit with all sorts of little tiny shoes for girls who need them, because we'll always provide shoes, or other, you know, sports athletic wear that they might need.

Each-- We do purchase the curriculum from the national organization, each team gets a bag filled with cones, and strings, and balloons and whatever the lessons require, we pack those all up.

We provide them for the coaches.

So, there is a cost to doing business.

And so, you know, every dollar we raise does go into the program.

- Okay.

So, tell us a little bit more about Heart and Soul.

- [Molly] Yeah!

So, Heart and Soul works off of a model that we call, The Girl Wheel.

And, The Girl Wheel has all the aspects of a person's physical health, their mental health, their social and emotional.

And so, each lesson is tailored to those specific topics.

At the end of our Girls on the Run program, the last three lessons, the coaches take a step back and the girls themselves have to brainstorm, plan, and implement what we call, The Community Impact Project.

- Right.

- And, it's a service project that they decide.

That's one of our five Cs, is they're gonna care for their community.

- [Joe] Right.

- Okay.

So, they might do something like take chalk and write inspirational messages around their school grounds.

They have to get permission, of course.

- [Joe] Right.

- They have decided-- There was one team out in the desert that one of their coaches was a special needs teacher.

And, she must've said more than once, "Oh, my special needs classroom doesn't have enough books or games."

So, they did a book and a toy drive for the special needs students at their school.

- Wow.

- [Molly] That's what the girls decided to do!

- Right, yeah.

- So, it's really powerful to us at Girls on the Run that we-- You know, bring these girls in.

They're individuals.

They maybe don't have a lot of confidence.

They, you know, learn those skills.

They become a team and then they have to hash this out, you know?

And so, watching them use all the skills that we've given them throughout the season to then say, "This is how we wanna give back to our community."

- [Joe] Right, right.

- Is really powerful.

- So, give us the 13,000 foot view of the programs themselves.

"Here are our programs."

- [Molly] Sure.

Sure.

So, Girls on the Run is the name of the organization.

- [Joe] Right.

- Girls on the Run is also the name of the program.

We shorten it and we say, GOTR!

If you're a GOTR girl, you are in our third to fifth grade program.

- [Joe] Right.

- Our Heart and Soul program serves the girls sixth, seventh, and eighth grade.

- Okay.

- And then, our Camp GOTR program is a one week, half-day summer camp where the girls, instead of preparing for a 5K, like the other two programs, the girls are working on storytelling, building, and arts and crafts.

So, their culminating activity at the end of that week is a gallery walk.

They have to curate their own items that they've made throughout the week.

- [Joe] Wow.

- All sorts of great things.

And then, their friends and family walk through and they have to maybe, say something about why they chose that particular piece of art, how they wrote their story.

And so, again, we're giving them the confidence.

- Okay!

And speaking of which, let's talk to a participant, a coach, and a caregiver from Girls on the Run.

[light upbeat music] ♪ - My name is Jodi, and I'm part of Girls on the Run.

- My name is Emerson, and I am in Girls on the Run.

- I'm Marlene Dimas.

I am here as a coach for Girls on the Run.

- I'm Naya, and I'm with Girls on the Run.

- My name is Marcelita Rato.

I'm with Girls on the Run.

I'm one of the head coaches.

- My name is Audrey Leman, and I am part of the Girls on the Run Camp.

- I'm Ashley Leman.

I am a teacher at Pachappa Elementary.

I teach third grade, but I was also a coach this last year in the fall and the spring season.

- My name is Eliana, and Girls on the Run is based on running, and learning about friendship.

The coaches?

They're nice.

They're helpful.

They love doing things for us.

- [Marlene] We'll do fun games.

We'll do activities where we teach them about creating friendship, creating good communication with others.

- [Naya] My favorite thing is activities because it's fun and I can get my energy in.

- [Emerson] My favorite thing is that I could actually express myself without being laughed at.

- [Audrey] I like to run.

It just boosts my energy and my confidence.

- [Eliana] We do games, workshop, arts and crafts, buildings.

- [Audrey] Sometimes, we do, like, obstacles.

- [Eliana] We play tag.

I've run the 1K for fifth grade.

- [Ashley] I just loved getting to connect with the girls.

And, really, the last year I did it, a lot of third graders did it.

So, that was the grade I taught.

So, I was able to connect with a lot of those girls.

- [Marcelita] The first two days, the girls are a little shy, but throughout the end of the week, they get very comfortable.

And, you really see the progress they've made just in a little week of teaching them the communication skills and the friendship skills.

- [Jodi] It's mostly like, not friends, but like hanging out and then you become their friends.

- [Emerson] At the end of the day, we do compliments, like-?

So, we write on a piece of letter and, like, they give us a name to compliment to people to make them feel better.

- [Jodi] I have my friends here.

- [Ashley] We saw a lot of social and emotional growth with, like, bonding and community building and friendship.

And across grade levels, actually, the third graders didn't just hang out with the third graders.

They hung out with kids older, and the girls got along and really had a great time.

The runs were great.

Like, the 5K was so fun.

- [Emerson] I did two 5Ks.

It was actually really cool because they had water stands for us when we wanna get dehydrated.

And, like, it started off-- Because we could run with our friends and we could actually-- we could do things that we actually enjoy.

- [Jodi] I've been to two Girls on the Runs.

It started good, but it's just-- We do a lot of activities and it's good fresh air.

We get to run.

We enjoy the air.

And then, we, like, run around and stuff.

Like, more games outside than being on our lectures.

- [Marlene] So, I'm a part of the CBU Sports and Performance Psychology program.

I think I really resonate working with youth especially, but girls!

(chuckles) I coach a girls soccer team.

And so, I really just wanted to implement a lot of what I do in my own coaching career into this.

And, I really enjoyed what they stood for, Girls On the Run.

I really like the social development aspect of it.

It's really important to have that, especially at that young of an age.

- [Naya] I've come here and I'm meeting new people.

- [Emerson] This girl named Rose?

She's really nice, but she is experiencing with some bullying, so I'm helping her through that.

- [Audrey] We talk about H.E.A.R.T.

It's about making friends.

- [Marlene] So, definitely socially, when it comes to making friends, there's a lot of different aspects that we need to learn!

(chuckles) Especially, when it comes to it.

So, I really enjoy that there's really simplified versions of that.

So, they have the H.E.A.R.T.

acronym and just using that in everyday life.

Like, you do extend yourself and you do pick your head up in order to discuss and have conversations with people.

And, teaching that at a very young age and in the simplest form possible is probably the best way to socially develop them in later life so they can do that.

And, even during interviews, you know?

(chuckles) You really need to have that-- those skills to succeed later in life.

So, I think that's an awesome part of what Girls on the Run does.

- [Eliana] I think other girls might like Girls on the Run because, if they have friend troubles, they could probably, like, talk about it.

And, you play a lot of games and stuff.

So- And, the people here are really nice.

So- - [Ashley] I think your child should check out Girls on the Run because it grows them not only physically, but social emotionally.

And, they'll make great friends and create great bonds with the staff that participate.

And so, I really think that every girl should do this program.

[light upbeat music] ♪ - [Joe] So, tell me about you guys' metric for success in terms of, hey, we've served X number of people.

- [Molly] Mm hm.

- When they graduate, they can do X or Y or Z.

How do you know that you've done what you've set out to do?

- Yeah.

So, really, the international organization has an entire research team that is working on that all the time.

The reason we start with third grade is the research shows that girls' confidence really starts to go down at about third grade.

Up till second grade, they're raisin' their hand; they're answering questions in class.

And then, there's a dramatic change.

- Right.

- So, the research is showing that yes, the girls in our program, because they've been given these skills, are better able to stand up for themselves.

We're seeing it here in our local programs.

We do get a lot of funding through the schools that comes through the state.

Expanded Learning Opportunity funding?

- Mm hm.

- That was established to, after COVID, help bridge that gap because so many students were lacking.

They miss those-- You know, just goin' to school, getting up every day.

- [Joe] Right.

- Talking to other people.

So, you know, those data points are coming, but we're seeing them anecdotally.

- So, tell me the hardest part about what you do.

- Mm!

I really like that question!

- [Joe] Yeah.

- [Molly] Yeah.

- And, you probably don't even know where to start with it, right?

- [Molly] Yeah!

Yeah!

(Joe laughs) I think the hardest part is that I want us to be...here.

- [Joe] Right, for sure.

- And, we're...here.

You know?

- [Joe] For sure.

- So, really just that patience of we're gonna build a program in one community, do it well, and then replicate it in another community.

- Right.

- Because in terms of resources, there's all sorts of funding that comes from the state, the city, even the county.

We just recently got some-- A county supervisor gave us some funding to expand in one part of the county.

So, I think just being strategic.

- Yeah.

- And, planning out.

And then, really making sure that we're serving that community.

- [Joe] Right.

- One of the things that Girls on the Run International has been very focused on is making sure that our staff and our coaches mirror the communities that we're in.

- Right, sure.

- So, I need to do a lot of work in the communities we're not serving yet to first bring up "Who are gonna be those volunteers?"

- [Joe] Right.

- So, they've gotta be the community members.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, really working hard.

And, that's why we go out and we do events in communities.

- Sure.

- We might do a health fair or another 5K so that we can get to know the community.

Runners, in particular, do love our program.

They always stop by after they're on the high of running their race and say, "How can I get involved?"

- [Joe] Yeah.

- You do not have to be a runner to be a volunteer for Girls on the Run.

- Right.

- You do not have to be a female, either.

- [Joe] Right.

- So, while we do serve girls, our volunteer program is very diverse.

- [Joe] So, look in the window for us.

And-?

I think what you guys do is so important, first of all, not only for the self-esteem of girls that will become young ladies and women, et cetera.

But for their mental health- - [Molly] Mm hm.

- [Joe] Physical health; all of these dots that you connect, all of these boxes that you check with an increasingly pressurized society?

- Mm hm.

- So much on us, you know, people that have to balance all of the expectations that they have related to life.

Look around the corner for us and let us know where we're going.

- [Molly] Mm!

And, how Girls on the Run can help us in terms of-- You know?

You kind of have to foresee the future a little bit because you wanna help equip them.

You wanna help give them the skills that they can take and apply to something else.

But, give us some of the looking glass and the prediction that really helps to inform what you guys do now.

- Sure.

Well?

I'll start with my personal journey into running, which really was a mental journey for me.

- [Joe] Right, okay.

- I knew I needed to do something different.

- [Joe] Right.

- When I look at the girls who come through our programs, some of them come and they, you know, don't look up and their hair is down in their face.

And, you know, they wanna have a cell phone with them, if the parents allow it and they have the cell phone, we put 'em all away.

- Right.

- What I see for the future is that girls who go through our program, they don't even bring the cell phone.

Or, they-?

You know, they're not even worried about that.

They would much prefer to be outside playing with their friends, having a good time than worried about what they're missing out on in, you know, a world that isn't really reality.

- Right.

- So, that would be my goal.

- [Joe] Yeah.

- And, I think as we look forward, and especially because we're gonna have the Olympics in our backyard again here in a few years.

- That's right!

Yeah.

- This whole idea of play equity?

It doesn't have to be sport.

We're not competitive.

- [Joe] Right.

- We don't ever time the girls.

Or, you know, we have them keep track of their laps only because that helps 'em set goals.

- Right.

- [Molly] You know?

- Wow, yeah.

- So, the goal setting.

And then, just-- I really hope we get to-?

Maybe it's back to a place, or maybe it's to a brand new place where kids are encouraged to play and they enjoy it.

And then, they bring their families along.

- [Joe] Yes.

- One of the great things about our program is, we have a caregiver guide that goes home with every family and it lists out our lessons so that they can talk about it.

And then, there's also, a plan for the caregivers to participate in the 5K.

Maybe they start out walking in their neighborhood for 20 minutes.

- Right, wow.

- Then, they kind of work up.

So, we give them their own schedule.

- [Joe] Right.

- And so, I think, you know, that kids and families together would play in their communities.

- Right, wow.

That's wonderful.

Tell us how- You know, we're inspired.

Assume I'm inspired.

Assume the people that are watching us are inspired and they wanna get more information.

They wanna follow up.

How do they connect with the organization?

- Yeah.

So, you know, really just finding us on our website, Girls On The Run, Riverside.

It's really easy to find.

I found it when I was looking for something!

- [Joe] Right on!

Alright.

- And then, you know, really what we're looking for is people who can give of their time.

So again, maybe it's not a coach; that's a really big commitment.

- [Joe] Right.

- But maybe, it's, "You know, I'll come over and I'll help you pack up the coach bags."

- Right, sure.

- We have a volunteer who loves to write thank you notes so we do get many donors and sponsors of in-kind gifts.

Every once in a while, we'll throw it out there on social media: we need a shoe fairy!

Our girls are in need of shoes.

And so, people love to, you know, donate shoes.

Or, snacks for our programs.

- [Joe] Right.

- But, yeah.

They can just reach out and we can find a place.

And, you know?

We actually get a lot of volunteers who've come from other parts of the country.

- Sure.

- Who know about the program.

- Gotcha.

- So, that's really cool.

- So, they're really looking for you for that reason.

- Yeah.

- [Joe] That's fantastic.

So, Molly Widdicombe, thank you so much for coming and being with us.

We appreciate Girls on the Run and all of the things that it's doing, and we wish you great success in the future.

- Thank you, Joe.

It's been a pleasure to be here!

- So, once again, another fantastic organization doing great work, changing lives in the Inland Empire.

We're glad that you joined us.

Make sure you let everybody know to not only watch our episodes at their regular time, but to watch our YouTube.

And then, you can see not only the episodes, but additional information.

So, let's keep going down the road together, one conversation at a time.

Until then, Joe Richardson for "Inland Edition."

See ya next time.

[uplifting music and vocals] ♪ ♪ ♪ [softer music and vocals] ♪ ♪ ♪ [music fades]