Give Amplify Connect

Role Models in Motion: Girls Forward Foundation

• Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation • Episode 21

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Gaby Estrada, Executive Director of Girls Forward Foundation (formerly Fast and Female), shares the organization's journey from its Canmore roots to becoming a nationwide charity empowering girls through sport, physical activity, and education.

Girls Forward Details

  • Founded in 2005 in Alberta by Chandra Crawford
  • Empowered over 34,000 youth across Canada and internationally
  • Recently rebranded from Fast and Female after 20 years
  • Creates brave and welcoming spaces for girls to try new sports
  • Connects participants with diverse women role models
  • Provides evidence-based curriculum focused on transferable skills


Podcast Key Messages

  • Built to Run programs in Bow Valley and Calgary prepare girls for the annual Rocky Mountain Soap Company's Girls Run event
  • Supporting "Flag Like a Girl" in Edmonton to increase girls' participation in flag football
  • Role Model program showcases diverse women from local communities
  • Youth Advisory Council provides critical input, including guiding the rebranding process
  • Collaborative approach works with local communities to address specific needs

Ways to support Girls Forward Foundation: follow on social media, volunteer at local events, become a monthly or one-time donor, amplify their message, or reach out to explore other partnership opportunities.


About Our Guest

Gaby Estrada is a passionate leader driven by authenticity, collaboration, and inclusion. As a first-generation Canadian with parents from Guatemala, she is dedicated to creating spaces where everyone feels a true sense of belonging.

Since 2018, Gaby has been with Fast and Female, now Girls Forward Foundation, and has held numerous roles, including Event Coordinator, Program Manager, and now Executive Director. She has worked alongside the team to transform the organization into a more inclusive and intersectional charity, overseeing its rebrand and continued growth in empowering girls through sport and education. She holds a Master of Science from the University of Toronto, where her research explored movement-based experiences of racialized women in Scarborough.


What is Give Amplify Connect?

There’s a story behind every action. Give Amplify Connect is a podcast from the Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation that gives a voice to the Alberta-based charitable organizations creating community impact, changing lives, and making a difference. Driven by honest conversations with host Kristy Wolfe, it’s a chance for passionate changemakers to share their story.

Learn more at wolfepackwarriors.com

Podcast music used with artist permission
"Okay" by Ellen Braun


Gaby Estrada:

that girls get to walk away meeting a new role model, meeting someone from their community who might be an incredible high-performance athlete, a local reporter, a school teacher, a business owner, whatever it might be and I just think it's something that I wish I had access to. And to think of all these girls that get to walk into our programs like this and automatically get access to role models is just super fulfilling.

Introduction:

Welcome to Give Amplify Connect, the Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation podcast that dives deeper into the stories of the charitable organizations in Alberta that are making a difference. Host and producer Kristy Wolf sits down with the leaders of the nonprofit world to learn more about their purpose, hopes and dreams. Settle in for an honest conversation with Kristy about the impact people are making in their communities and how they keep moving forward.

Kristy Wolfe:

Joining me today is Gabby Estrada. Now Gabby is the executive director of Girls Forward Foundation, but many of you are going to know this as Fast and Female they have recently rebranded.

Gaby Estrada:

We're so excited to hear all about it, gabby will you first of all introduce us to Girls Forward Foundation? Absolutely, and thank you so much for having me, and it's still even wild to hear the name Girls Forward Foundation. We've been Fast and Female for 20 years now, where 2025 is our 20th anniversary. So thank you so much for that introduction, so Fast and Female. Now.

Gaby Estrada:

Girls Forward Foundation is a registered Canadian charity. We were founded in 2005 in Alberta in Canmore, specifically by Chandra Crawford. We first started really focused in the Canmore area in the Bow Valley on high performance young women athletes and being able to bring in women role models that were Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls. National team athletes focused predominantly on winter sports. We have grown exponentially since then and shifted, but at the end of the day, our mission has always remained the same. So we are all about girls in sport and our mission is about empowering girls through sport, physical activity and education. In those 20 years we have empowered over 34,000 youth.

Gaby Estrada:

We've been all across Canada. We used to be in the States, we've been in Australia. We've empowered girls in Europe. We've had girls joining us from Sweden on virtual programs and really for us, it's how we can create these brave and welcoming spaces for girls to be introduced to new sports and physical activities, to be connected to incredible women, role models from diverse backgrounds and sport and physical activity experiences, and how we can invest in the girls themselves and filling their toolbox. So what are the skills and tools that we can teach them through our evidence-based curriculum that they can take away and use in their sport settings at school on a day-to-day basis that ultimately really works to build their confidence and empower this next generation of leaders and this current generation of leaders as well, too.

Kristy Wolfe:

Oh, I love that. Okay, so, gabby, how did you get involved in Girls Forward?

Gaby Estrada:

Love that. Okay. So, gabby, how did you get involved in Girls Forward? So it's funny, I am not from Alberta. I do have family in Edmonton and I am a big fan of the mountains, thanks to being a part of this organization.

Gaby Estrada:

But I had initially found Fast and Female back then just through Googling. I was an undergrad student. I had starting to get more active in sport and physical activity. I was running girls programming in my community. So I'm born and raised from Scarborough, which is a borough in Toronto. My family is from Guatemala, so I'm a first generation Canadian and wanted to just give back more to my community and, in particular, loved the intersections of gender and sport and movement the intersections of gender and sport and movement.

Gaby Estrada:

I remember really just Googling girls in sport in Canada what organizations existed, what initiatives existed, how could I get involved and I found Fast and Female. And it's interesting because I was actually really hesitant at first to apply or even become a part of the organization. The organization has always focused on being able to showcase and elevate incredible women role models across the country. We intentionally use the term role models where back then we would call them all ambassadors, and so it was really focused on high performance women ambassadors that were currently competing at, like, the national team level or representing their province, but a lot more higher, competitive sport. And I was not a competitive athlete.

Gaby Estrada:

I grew up playing soccer. I loved sport, but I just my family couldn't afford to put two kids in sport and my brother was already in baseball, and so I thought you know what? I'm going to just throw my name in the hat, and I can still find the emails of me like emailing fast and female at the time being, like this is my resume. I remember getting an email saying thanks so much. We don't have anything right now, but here's our ambassador program, if you want to apply. So I applied, I got in and I did my first event.

Gaby Estrada:

I think it might have been in 2017 that I did my first event, and it's so funny because when I look back at it now, I'm like, wow, it's such a good reminder to just throw your name in. Just there's no harm in just sending a resume, because if you don't do anything, you're already automatically going to get a no, but if you're putting yourself out there, it's a 50-50 shot, right. And so it was a few months after I submitted my resume that I actually got an email from my former boss, actually Una Launder, being like hey, we have your resume, we're actually running an event in Toronto. Do you want to, or would you be interested in coming on to support it? And then I got hired as an event coordinator and then just like, took off from there and since formally joined the team in 2018 and took over as executive director in 2022, and it's been quite a journey.

Kristy Wolfe:

I think that's incredible, that piece around like putting your name out there, getting involved with volunteering and seeing where that leads. Because I think that some many of our like nonprofit workspaces are because there's a passion there, right Like that's what drives you to go there and then that's what keeps you involved. So your story is definitely incredible. I'm hoping, as we continue to talk, that we can kind of focus in on Alberta. We know that Girls Forward is across Canada, but can you tell us about some of the programs that are going on in Alberta?

Gaby Estrada:

Absolutely so, I'd say. Irregardless of how national we are, alberta is always such a big hub for us and we are always guaranteed to be in the province at least five times, if not more, per year, and it's usually for a multi-week program or a really big event. So one of the big turnkey events that we've been fortunate enough to do for the last, I think, about six to eight years is our annual Girls Run. So we have been so fortunate to have been supported by Rocky Mountain Soap for quite a few years now and being the charitable organization and beneficiary of the Women's Soap Run which happens every year in Cameroon, alberta, usually second last to last weekend of May, and so we are coming back to Girls Run this year. We're actually so thrilled because Girls Run is going to be our first event in our new brand and being able to showcase the new brand, so that's really exciting.

Gaby Estrada:

What we've done this year as well is that we are very fortunate to have been selected as a recipient for the Wolfpack Warriors Foundation granting, and we are running two built to run programs in the Bow Valley, as well as an additional three that's being funded by Jumpstart in Calgary, and Built to Run is a multi-week program that is teaching girls between the ages of five to 12 the basics of running in preparation for Girls Run, while also attaching a life skill to each week.

Gaby Estrada:

So we are looking at how we can implement life skills and like highlighting life skills and how you can gain them and they're transferable through participation in sport and physical activity, but also, then, how you can prepare and train for a goal, and so Girls Run is going to be that end goal that all the participants are working towards. We're hoping to engage between 115 to 140, I believe it is girls across Calgary and Bow Valley. So super thrilled and super excited and, like I mentioned, we have such deep roots in Calgary and the Bow Valley area and been in quite a few different cities and we're so thrilled to continue to have great partnerships there.

Kristy Wolfe:

We're talking about the Build to Run program, but there's so many different programs. Like, I heard about a program in Calgary last year that was girls in motorsports and it was actually about go-karts, and that's like how we connected in the first place. I want you to talk a little bit about the girls in Edmonton and the football league that's there, because when you told me that story when we were just chatting, it was incredible specific and we don't always have the same kind of events or programs.

Gaby Estrada:

So I spoke about running and, yes, we've, we've done running, we've done soccer, we've done we're doing fencing right now. But our big thing is we're a collaborative organization. We're always looking at who can we work alongside to create these more welcoming, high quality and accessible sport and physical activity opportunities for girls across the country. So last year we were so thrilled to be approached by Sport Calgary to support this motorsport event for girls in Alberta, which was phenomenal. One of our models is also how we can support youth in taking the skills and initiatives and like the leadership abilities to actually create their own kind of programs and events. So we're working with two youth out in Edmonton, avery and Tessa, and they were connected to us through our work with Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities. We've worked alongside them in their Play to Lead program, which is all about increasing young women's leadership in sport and physical activity, and we met them back in Edmonton in 2023, actually and they came to us and they said hey, here's this issue.

Gaby Estrada:

In our community, we see a lack of girls participating in flag football. We love flag football, but we can't get leagues going. Sometimes we can't run games. It's always co-ed and even so, there's not a lot of girls. Could you help us? So what's awesome and what I love about being a charity is as much as we're looking to have supporters support us is. At the end of the day, our charitable mission is to support the community, and so sometimes it is us delivering our own programs, but sometimes it's helping others deliver a program. So in this case, flag Like a Girl was created. We are the trustee organization for the Flag Like a Girl organization. We have supported them in acquiring funding from different organizations and then support them in planning out their initiatives where they need support and building a budget and different things like that. So they last year ran a big flag like intro event. It was a one day event where I think they had about 50 to 60 girls across Edmonton trying flag football for the first time. They just ran a camp, I think, in the last two weeks and then they're looking at how they can slowly start building this out to be a league and the hope is that we act as this mentor organization.

Gaby Estrada:

Ultimately, the same way we look to mentor girls in our programs, we get to mentor them to build all these incredible things and support them and things like okay, what does it mean to promote an event? What does it mean to seek sponsorship, what does it mean to have a waiver to sign, what does it mean to have finances at top of mind and where we need receipts and how we pay people and how you compensate yourself and things like that. So it's been really, really cool and it's nice because it really falls under our youth programming model. We have our own youth advisory council, we have a youth mentorship program that's being launched, we have junior role model opportunities and really it's that building block part of our organization. It's a part of the journey, ideally of what we want our participants to have as they start, as you know, participants trying a sport, going running, doing the girls run, trying fencing, whatever it might be and then they move into a leadership opportunity where it's like a leader in training they could test these things out, and then they move into a role model or like a full leadership opportunity.

Gaby Estrada:

So it's really cool to work with the girls out in Edmonton and flag like a girl. They're doing such incredible things and I'm learning so much as well too, because I am not a flag football athlete but to hear the barriers, to hear the frustrations, but also to see the passion and drive to wanting to create change is just such a beautiful thing.

Kristy Wolfe:

Well, it's incredible because I think about, like our podcast is called Give, amplify, connect, and like you can only do so many things, but how do you give people the power and the capacity to do it for themselves? And so that's one of the things that you're talking about. We've recently been working with the Jerry Forbes Center Foundation, which is in Edmonton, and they are a charity that houses other charities. So that same idea of like how do you support and work so that more people can benefit from it? And that piece around like education, here's how you do things, because you're right, like finances not top of mind when somebody is trying to start a league, but like needs to be if they want it to be sustainable. So, oh my gosh, this is really incredible to hear. I mean, I know this story already and I'm still excited to hear it all again, and I would love for my colleague Donna to go check out some of the flag football that's going on out there 100%.

Kristy Wolfe:

Will you talk a little bit more about the role model program and what that looks like, because I'd love to hear about that no-transcript.

Gaby Estrada:

Our organization and reach new communities across Canada is that we wanted to ensure that the role models that we had in our programs represented our targeted demographic, that they looked like them, that they had similar lived experiences, that they came from their communities, but that we also showcased a diverse experience and journey in sport and physical activity. So it wasn't just high performance athletes, but it's all these incredible careers and things that happen in all of these women's lives because, or that was fueled through, their participation in sport and physical activity. So it was really great. I think it was in 2019, just when I had started. We did a research project with the University of Toronto, dr Catherine Savison, who works exclusively in girls in sport and looks at mental health and body image, and Kathy and her team had done an analysis of our organization and came back with key recommendations, and one of them was about the role model program ambassador at the time and they said there is literature and evidence that showcases that what we're really looking to show to girls across Canada and in many different sectors, not just in sport, is role models. So we recommend that you change what your program is to make it a lot more relatable. So we were like, okay, boom, quick, switch in the name, but also something that would open up and entice more women to want to be a role model. So we were like, okay, boom, quick, switch in the name, but also something that would open up and entice more women to want to be a role model.

Gaby Estrada:

So I spoke about my experience, but I'm stubborn. I was like you know what? I'm going to throw my name in the hat. I'm not a high performance athlete, but for so many women that look at the terms ambassador, that in itself could also be really terrifying to think can I actually be an ambassador? And it's been incredible. We've already seen such a huge ROI like a return on investment and how that's opened up who our role models are, and so for us, the big thing is literally you. You can't be what you don't see Like. It's very hard to imagine yourself in different roles If you don't see someone who looks like you, who has a similar lived experience like you. But we also know and things are changing now, which is amazing that there was also a lack of media attention on women's sports, women in physical activity, at the professional level, from journalism, from photographers every role possible and the shift is so beautiful right now and it's so great to see, but it wasn't like that five years ago, and so for us, we're like know, it's one thing to create, you can have girls sports team, girls clubs, but if you don't have a role model in there, if you don't have a woman leading these sessions, let alone someone who's trained, who's qualified, who's prepared, you can't just have something that exists without all these key foundational pieces. And so for us it was how can we elevate role models that are local from within the girls communities showcase all the different career choices and opportunities that they can work towards, but also all these different stories that are relatable to them, and it's been amazing. It's something that we don't like. We cannot exist without it.

Gaby Estrada:

Role models are at the heart of what we do. The way our model also works as an organization is we're a pretty lean team. We're slowly growing, but we're about nine 10 people on our staff. There's no way we are going to spend donor dollars sending staff across the country. We have representation in three or four provinces right now, but who knows a community better than a community member themselves?

Gaby Estrada:

So for us, our model is we recruit role models locally, within the community.

Gaby Estrada:

We're delivering an adventure program and we also recruit our facilitators from that same community so that we can then work with them and ideally a community partner as well, to then say, ok, here is our model, what are the needs of your community?

Gaby Estrada:

What can we do to adapt and pivot to make this a much more inclusive and welcoming space that considers the nuanced experiences of being a young girl out in Winnipeg Manitoba versus Canmore, alberta versus Fredericton versus Toronto. There's all these different key considerations, and role models are a big piece of that, and what's great is sometimes you also see role models that recruit girls from their local school. They might be teachers or clubs, girls from their local school, they might be teachers or clubs, and it's just like a really cool and beautiful thing to witness is that girls get to walk away meeting a new role model, meeting someone from their community who might be an incredible high-performance athlete, a local reporter, a school teacher, a business owner, whatever it might be, and I just think it's something that I wish I had access to. And to think of all these girls that get to walk into our programs like this and automatically get access to role models is just super fulfilling and really reminds me of why it's important what we do.

Kristy Wolfe:

Oh, I love that, okay, okay. So another question that I was thinking about as you were talking is just, you mentioned your youth council. How involved were the youth council in rebranding and choosing your new name? They were all involved.

Gaby Estrada:

So it's really cool. We just actually brought on a new youth advisory council. We called them YAC. They came on at the end of 2024. And our initial YAC was actually funded by the Calgary Foundation Doc Seaman Fund and that was back in. It was supposed to be 2020 to 2022.

Gaby Estrada:

And COVID obviously threw us for a loop and we had to shift our plans, which is fine, but our initial yak actually ended up staying on for four years. So our goal was first two years. Then we're like hey, do you want to stick around? And it's wild, honestly, christy, because they just changed the concept of yak and being able to work with them. The idea of the yak is a for the girls by the girls approach. So we don't want to create opportunities. The same way we work collaboratively with communities is we also don't want to create opportunities for girls without actually having their input. So research and evaluation and really being able to get feedback from the girls is really important for us. But YAC was this really cool opportunity to work really closely with this council of 15 youth from across the country, learn what they liked, what they didn't like and even leading up to the rebrand having some of them on like our strategic planning process committee talking about what they liked, what they didn't like. And what's been interesting is and we've seen quite a few individuals speak to us personally about how the name of the organization, being Fast and Female, actually made them hesitate the way it made me hesitate that they weren't sure if it was for them and in particular, some of our youth and some of the folks we've worked with that do come from the LGBTQ plus community that are young, racialized girls and racialized women that are like this didn't seem like it was for me. I'm not a high performance athlete, so with our former yak they had access to a survey. We had like questions and feedback.

Gaby Estrada:

But with this new yak they came on just as we were developing brand concepts and we had sent them the initial three brand concepts and it's actually wild Now that I think about it they really led us in a completely different direction. So we shared the branding with them. There was three choices. My favorite was the first one. We had like vetoed the third one and the second one I really disliked and so did some of the other folks on our committee and the yacht came back and they're like actually we love the second one. We like that. It feels like there's a lot more movement in it, but we like this about the first one. So they gave us really concrete feedback.

Gaby Estrada:

And then I went back to the designers and I was like, okay, so we asked the youth. They liked the second one. But here's our concerns from, like a staffing perspective. Can we merge these two concepts? And so it was great. Like we ended up going with the font that they liked, we ended up keeping key elements that they really enjoyed and then, when the brand was actually ready to go, we sent them the brand and we're like, boom, look at this, like here's what you did. So it was, it was really cool. It was a really involved process and I don't know how many of them actually realized, like how one of one of an experience this was is because they just get a slack message from our youth council coordinator, siobhan, just being like hey y'all, here's some brand concept, let us know what this means, without realizing that there's lawyers involved and trademarking and all these legal perspectives. They're like I like this and I like this and boom, boom, boom. So really cool.

Kristy Wolfe:

Well, and it's interesting, like I hope you send this podcast to them after so that they can hear what an impact that made, because you're right, like through a message, asked a question, you might not realize just how much of what you said came back and actually had that ripple effect. Right when I think about Girls Forward, how do we, how do we tell people how to give, amplify or connect with what you're doing?

Gaby Estrada:

Yeah, appreciate that question. I think for me, I'm always cognizant of saying to folks that there's so many different ways that you can get involved depending on where you are in your life right now, and I think for us, we're open to all forms of support. So, as a charity focused on girls in sport and physical activity, one of the big things is can you just amplify our voice? Is it signing up for a newsletter? Is it resharing some of our content? Is it if we're running an event locally in your community and you have time, do you want to come out and volunteer? If you have the means, folks are able to donate where we provide tax receipts over $20, I believe it is. We have different formats. You can become a monthly donor, a one-time donor. We do really cool fundraising campaigns and just really always looking at okay, who can we work with? That is values aligned, that wants us to move the needle forward for us.

Gaby Estrada:

And how else can you get involved? Donors and grantors that want to then build a relationship, and that's not for everyone and that's fine. But if you are someone who's like I love this and I want to support you financially. But here's how else I can support you. For me, that means the world, because it's just another form of impact that I think a lot of times we forget is the girls are incredible and we see so much impact and they are, at the end of the day, are targeted demographic. But what's beautiful is the ripple effects of impact and change that we can see through our work. That's not just the end user, but it's the staff, it's the donor, it's the supporter. It's someone who read an article and was excited. It's someone saying, wow, that person looks like me in the poster. So really, for us, it's follow us on socials, Check us out if we're in your community and if there's any other ways that you'd like to get involved or are able to support us, don't hesitate to reach out.

Kristy Wolfe:

That's perfect. Okay, here's my last question for you, Gabby. Tell us about an organization or a person that inspires you.

Gaby Estrada:

The organization that comes to mind is Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities.

Gaby Estrada:

I just feel like they do amazing work. They're potentially the biggest funder of youth sport in Canada and I think what's interesting is when you think of Jumpstart is it's the corporation and the charity, but they're both putting their money where their values are. So you're seeing the investment in the PWHL, in the Northern Super League, and I think for me that is so cool to see. On the flip side, I also in their big organization, Black Girl Hockey Club, is just so amazing. The work that they do in really trying to ensure that young, racialized girls can see themselves represented in athletes, in players, in giving scholarships, telling stories and I think for me that's a big one is how can we make sure that we're elevating more voices, telling more stories of diverse individuals in sport and showing that we can recreate sport and physical activity to be a lot more inclusive and welcoming and showcase that everyone can have a great experience in it and like a well-rounded, fully active experience in it as we work together, which I think is a really big part of it too.

Kristy Wolfe:

Well, gabby, thank you so much for coming on telling us more about Girls Forward Foundation, and we'll see you at the soap run. I'm excited, can't wait. Thank you for joining us today. The purpose of the Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation is to give, amplify and connect. Visit our website, www. wolfepackwarriors. com to learn more about this initiative or connect with us about a registered charity that is important to you. Don't miss the next episode. Follow Give Amplify Connect on your favourite podcast platform to hear from other Alberta-based nonprofits about the work they are doing. On a final note, remember to take care of yourself and your pack.

Introduction:

Okay, you're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. Hush, my darling gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay.

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Kristy Wolfe

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