Here at OACT, we have a range of projects and initiatives going on all the time to support the community of Oldham. Our aim is to use the power of Oldham Athletic to reach the community and support the poeple of Oldham.
Below, you can read all about what we have been up to every month!
Womens Session Renamed to Women’s Recreational Football
Our Over 30’s Women’s session, now rebranded to 'Women’s Recreational Football', is held at the Honeywell Centre every Tuesday evening, 7pm-8pm. The session was created back in September 2021 in partnership with Manchester FA to encourage women over 30 to participate in football, whether they are new to the sport or have played for a number of years, during the lead up to what was a historic summer as the England Lionesses won the Women's Euros 2022 at Wembley.
12 months on from the session being launched, we now partnered with ‘Active Through Football Oldham’ who help support the session and have provided full Oldham Athletic kits for the women to wear when taking part in competitions. After consulting with the participants and project partners, the session will now be named ‘Women’s Recreational Football’ to allow the session to be more inclusive to a wider age group of participants! Using the term 'Recreational Football' emphasises the session is all about playing football for fun, fitness and social interaction rather than competition.
After the success of the Women’s Euro’s this year, we have received a huge amount of interest from women that want to play. Any women aged 18+ are now welcome to join the session and to take part in the fun!
Latics Fun Day at Spindles Town Square
The Latics Fun Day took place at the Spindles shopping centre with a variety of different activities, workshops, face painters and special appearances from Chaddy the Owl and Spindles Bear. The aim of this was to create a fun and engaging event for the Oldham community to link back to the football club being at the heart of the town. We also gifted 200 FREE ticket to the Eastleigh fixture for people who attend the event!
School Delivery Returned 2022-2023
Our school delivery returned for the new school year with 14 school partners! Our school partners for the year so far are;
Blackshaw Lane, Canon Burrows, Fir Bank, Friezland, Hey With Zion, Horton Mill, Mills Hill, Royton Hall, St Pauls Royton, Werneth, Westwood, Whitegate End, Willowpark, Woodlands
We have also been releasing videos on our socials introducing out school coaching team! Click the link here to meet our team!
Oldham Foodbank Donation
Working alongside Oldham Athletic and club supporters, we accumulated over 1,000 items for Oldham Foodbank when we asked fans to donate food items at the Oldham Athletic vs Chesterfield game!
Over the coming days we will be announcing 3 more matchdays before the end of the year where we will be supporting more charities this winter.
Supporting OAFC at Enterprise Oldham Expo 2022
On the 8th of September, we visited the Enterprise Oldham Expo 2022 to support Oldham Athletic at the event and discuss our community projects with the attendees.
First Play On The Pitch Of The 2022/23 Season
As the new football season is well underway, our Play On The Pitch has begun with our school partners Woodlands Primary and Werneth Primary getting to play against each other at half time on the Boundary Park pitch on the 17th September when Oldham Athletic took on Eastleigh.
PL Kicks partnership with Oldham Council & Oldham Youth Service
Working alongside Oldham Council and Oldham Youth Service, we have extended our PL Kicks provisions on Mondays.
We have been able to add a variety of indoor activities alongside the outdoor football to make the session more fun and engaging down at the Honeywell Centre.
Launched our October Soccer School
We are delighted to launch two soccer schools taking place during October Half Term following the success of the previous soccer schools this year. E-ACT Royton & Crompton Academy will be the host venue from Monday 24th October through to Thursday the 27th for a mixed soccer school for ages 7-12. The other is a brand-new Girls Exclusive Lionesses Soccer School, hosted at Crompton House from Tuesday the 25th of October through to Friday the 28th. This is a great opportunity for children to stay active and have fun during the school holidays as well as developing their football and personal skills.
You can find all our Soccer School details by clicking here -
October Half Term Soccer Schools.
During the October Half Term, we hosted two soccer’s schools in Oldham. We hosted our regular soccer school once again in partnership with Royton and Crompton E-Act Academy as well as our FIRST EVER Girls Exclusive Lionesses Soccer School at Crompton House.
Across the two camps we provided over 60 children with football, keeping active and socialising with new and old friends for 4 days! It is important to keep children physically and mentally engaged and our soccer schools are a positive way of doing this.
Each child who attended our soccer school is eligible to claim a free ticket to the Oldham Athletic vs Barnet game! Our footballers at the soccer schools where all lucky enough to meet some Oldham Athletic Players, with Oscar Threlkeld and David Okagbue visiting our Royton and Crompton camp with Charlie Cooper and Hallam Hope visiting our Girls only group at Crompton House.
You can watch highlight from both of our soccer schools below!
Deal Me Out Dedicated Matchday For Safer Gambling Week
For Safer Gambling Week 2022, we partnered with Deal Me Out to support people with gambling harm and raise awareness for safer gambling by hosting a matchday dedicated to them when Oldham took on Yeovil on Saturday the 22nd of October.
Deal Me Out is a registered community interest company which aims to educate, prevent and support those with gambling awareness, harm and addiction.
It delivers the national education and gambling harms awareness programme, aiming to reduce the adverse impact of gambling on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, communities, and society through education, prevention, and support.
You can read more about the matchday and partnership by clicking HERE (https://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/news/2022/october/22102022-safer-gambling-week-matchday/)
Grassroots and Foodbank Dedicated Fixture
As well as supporting Deal Me Out on October 22nd, we also held a dedicated grassroots fixtured and a food bank collection game. Grassroots clubs could claim complimentary tickets through OACT, which had been generously gifted by the football club.
The ticket offer was limited, with a maximum order of 30 per team. Teams could request up to two complimentary tickets per player in the squad. Due to the fixture also being nominated as one showcasing support to Oldham Foodbank, teams taking up the ticket offer where asked to donate a minimum of one food item per ticket – therefore if 30 tickets are requested teams should on the day donate a minimum of 30 food items.
This help us raise a huge amount of food donations for Oldham Foodbank, and as always, we are very appreciative of the support received from OAFC fans in helping us, help others!
Play On The Pitch
Our Play On The Pitch initiative continued as we welcomed 4 more schools across the month to play on the Boundary Park pitch! On the 1st of October we were joined by School partners Whitegate End and Canon Burrows and on the 22nd we welcomed School partners St Pauls Royton and Friezland! You can see the highlights from their visits below!
NCS Graduation Event
To celebrate such a great summer of NCS, we hosted a graduation party for our NCS Summer 2022 participants. On October 25th, our Summer 2020 graduates were welcomed to the Oldham Event Centre for a night of celebration! Lots of food, lots of catching up with friends and lots of partying! We are proud of all of our NCS graduates!
We look forward to seeing what they get up to in their futures, as well as welcoming back old faces who have joined our NCS changemakers group!
To find our more about NCS, email Holly.Espie@oact.org.uk.
Supported John Connelly Fundraiser
OAFC supporter, John Connelly started a fundraiser at the end of the month continuing into November to support 3 local cause in Oldham; Oldham Foodbank, Toy Appeal to support those in need this Christmas and a local grassroots club!
John will run 200 miles across 30 days, completing his challenge at Boundary Park on the 26th November! The distance is equivalent to his home to the stadium!
To find out more about Johns Fundraiser and to donate, click here (https://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/OACT/latest-news/john-connelly-fundraiser/)
Smart Meters support
In partnership with the EFL Trust and Smart Meter GB, we have been out and about in the community of Oldham to support residents with finding cheap solutions to help cut donw the cost of their gas and electric bills by using Smart Meter Gb Smart meters!
UCFB Event
On Tuesday the 4th of October, we welcomed over 100 students to Boundary Park from UCFB.
The students are currently starting their first years of studies about Football Business and got to enjoy a seminar with staff from Oldham Athletic, Oldham Athletic Community Trust and the Daily Mail.
The students spoke to Oldham Athletic Chairman, Frank Rothwell, Oldham Athletic CEO Darren Royle, Daily Mails Mike Keegan, Oldham Athletic Community Trust Head of Community Martin Vose and Oldham Athletic Community Trust Media & Communications Executive and former UCFB student Callum Irving.
The students had a great afternoon at the club, and were all invited to the Oldham Athletic vs Scunthorpe game later on that day!
Extended PL Kicks Provision
In partnership with Oldham Youth Service, we have extended our Monday Premier League Kicks provision! The 1-hour sessions has now doubled into a 2 hour session, with the additional offer of an indoor youth club for those who may not engage with the football provision.
This extension and additional offering has seen numbers increase in the session, keeping young people off the streets and engaging positively in a community session.