Helping our young females and rangatahi to be active and stay active as they go through adolescence is important for helping them to be healthy and happy, now and in the future. 

In late 2019, Triathlon Tauranga partnered with two intermediate schools to co-design and deliver a new pilot programme called triSASSY. Comprising of a 16-week after school programme for young females, year 7 and 8 (10-13 years old), empowering young females to be active through triathlon-specific training sessions run by our local network of women-friendly coaches, alongside fun fitness-based sessions, wellbeing and nutrition advice, in a supportive environment. As well as learning real-life skills such as self-awareness, individual goal setting, time management, perseverance and determination. All aspects of the programme are co-designed with the young females, from the branding, through to each weekly session, where they let us know what they enjoyed, didn’t enjoy, want to more off, etc.

triSASSY is already building a strong community not only with the young females that participate during the programme, but also with their parents, siblings and whanau. This includes volunteering in the community and also challenging their whanau to get more active, with many families choosing to take part in additional activities, both in triathlon and other sports.