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.
We also spoke to BBC Radio Manchester ahead of the day whihc you can listen to HERE
You can read more about the matchday and partnership by clicking HERE
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
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.