Us Girls has launched a new national scheme designed to improve the wellbeing of young women in England through increased sports participation.

Us Girls Alive will add to the existing Us Girls sports participation programme – a female-only scheme delivered by a consortium of organisations and led by national sport development charity StreetGames.

The initiative will support young female volunteers to assist in the development of Us Girls Alive clubs and to promote local physical activity programmes.

A £396,000 grant from the Department of Health will see 120 young female volunteer 'Motivators' create and manage 30 new Us Girls Alive clubs across England.

The scheme will run until 2015 and will be rolled out across 15 locations, each containing two clubs: Liverpool, Manchester, Walsall, Wigan, Newcastle, Hastings, Birmingham, Chorley, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Stoke, Lincoln, Penwith, Hammersmith and Thanet.

The Motivators will be tasked with arranging and coordinating opportunities for physical activity, with each club having its own scheduled sessions at times appropriate for their communities.

Jane Ashworth OBE, CEO of StreetGames, said: "We believe passionately in providing sports opportunities for young people in disadvantaged areas.

"We're also aware of the even greater disparity in uptake in sport between young men and young women and wanted to do something about it.

"The Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund (HSCVF) funding from the Department of Health will allow us to develop a vital new component to the Us Girls national sports programme supported by Sports Lottery Funding.

"The programme is a great success but we understand that developing young women's skills, confidence and self-esteem are central to the sustainability of the programme moving forward."