Here come the girls!

Dozens of girls and young women will be pulling on their tracksuits to take part in a huge variety of sports at the Active Lifestyle Centre in Manchester this week.

The event, which has been timed to co-incide with International Women's Day, will launch the Us Girls project encouraging girls and women to take part in sport and get more active. Young women from Loreto, Xaverian and the Manchester College will have the chance to try out judo, football, rounders, badminton, Nordic walking, squash, netball and boxercise.

Manchester has been chosen as one of more than 40 areas across the country to take part in the Sport England project which is being supported by Manchester City Council and backed with National Lottery Funding. The project is being delivered by the national sport development charity, StreetGames.

Us Girls activities are tailored around the needs of women living in urban areas. The sessions will be low cost, held in a wide range of locations and at convenient times to help women over come barriers such as low income, child care provision and transport issues.

Manchester City Council's Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, Councillor Mike Amesbury said: "Research shows that fewer than one in ten women living in parts of Manchester take part in regular exercise. We are proud to be supporting a project which will help address some of the issues preventing women from taking part in sport and help provide opportunities for them to get more active."

Manchester athlete, Diane Modahl, former 800m Commonwealth Champion said: "This project is hugely important. Young women are notoriously difficult to engage in sport simply because of the specific barriers they face such as access to facilities, cost and child-care. By understanding women's needs more closely and developing sessions around them, Us Girls is breaking new ground and I'm thrilled to be able to attend these launch events and show my support."

To find out more about Us Girls, email activewomen@streetgames.org.