By Freya Barwell and Holly Lindsay
Featured image: Girls on the Go

Manchester’s women-only running and wellness group making the UK a safer place for women and girls

Moving to a new city as a student or young professional can be lonely and many find it difficult to meet people with similar interests and establish friendships outside of the typical university and workplace environments. However, one group is encouraging women to socialise with like-minded people and build friendships, while tackling concerns for women’s safety and loneliness.

Formed in 2023, Girls on the Go started out as a running fundraising group in Liverpool led by three co-founders, Caitlin Lewing, Stephanie Barney and Martin Mach. It has since grown into one of the UK’s most successful lifestyle and wellness communities for women in the UK, stretching out across three locations including Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester.

The group launched their Manchester branch this summer and hope to empower women across the city, pushing to introduce safe spaces for women to socialise. Following their initial success, the health and wellness-based community have expanded to host events for women including wine glass painting, regular run clubs, yoga classes, and even the UK’s largest girls-only bingo event.

Co-founder Caitlin Lewing explains: “We thought: ‘Why don’t we just do women-only events?’ After we did a couple – and not to sound cliché – we haven’t looked back!” She adds: “We just want to make the UK a safer place for girls. That’s our mantra.”

Speaking about the future and upcoming events, Lewing adds: “The overarching plan is to have a location in every major city in the UK. That’s our main goal. We don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. Even if we’ve created two friends who now go for a coffee every Sunday, that’s our job done.”

With their age demographic ranging from 18 to 35, Girls on the Go work to provide a range of affordable activities in line with the cost of living crisis and student budgets, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to take part.

Lewing explains: “There’s a reason why people haven’t tried the likes of Pilates before and we want to make sure that we can really make it as affordable as possible to appeal to students as well, because the whole point of trying something new is that we don’t think it should be expensive.”

Amidst students and young people increasingly embracing sobriety, Girls on the Go adopts a ‘no-pressure’ attitude to alcohol in the hopes of encouraging people to engage in social events where drinking isn’t the sole activity. Lewing says: “I think providing something else to do, whether that’s making phone charms or painting a tote bag, takes the focus away from drinking.”

Alongside organising social events, giving back to their community is central to the Girls on the Go brand. Over the past year, the team have raised over £45,000, £6,300 of which came from just one running event alone.

“We try to represent a huge amount of charities that can help as many people as possible. But also, ones that we believe our community with align with too,” Lewing explains, emphasising the importance of choosing charities that align with their values. They have raises money for the likes of Children in Need, RASA Merseyside, which supports victims of sexual abuse, and more recently The Christie Charity in Manchester, supporting cancer patients and their families.

An essential element of the Girls on the Go group is their social media presence, with over 70k followers on Instagram and 37k on TikTok across their three location pages. Having a substantial online following, they believe it’s crucial to speak out and be a voice for activism against issues, frequently advocating for women’s rights and providing a safe space for things to be openly spoken about.

Lewing says: “Not only are we a group to facilitate a safe space to make friends, but we speak out about the importance of women’s issues and that can be worldwide or can be local to Manchester.” She adds: “If we stayed silent, we’d have been doing ourselves, and our community, a disservice.” The group spoke out after Donald Trump’s re-election, and reinforced their stance on women’s safety and reproductive rights.

Girls on the Go’s mission is clear. They want to give back to the communities they are part of, while providing a safe space for women to connect: “We want to make the UK a less lonely place for women.”

To keep updated with Girls on the Go, follow @girlsonthegomcrr on Instagram and visit girlsonthego.uk