Oldham MP joins Latics Community Trust ‘Keep doing good’ event

MP Jim McMahon is pictured during the webinar

Oldham Athletic Community Trust have been hosting a group of young people as part of a week of National Citizen Service, Keep Doing Good delivery. Oldham MP Jim McMahon joined the group to talk about their campaign to raise awareness of homelessness.

After the online event Jim said, “Once we got the all-important icebreakers out the way, we had an interesting discussion about homelessness, rough-sleeping and the hidden homeless. Homelessness is a vastly complicated issue, and rough sleeping is just the tip of the ice-berg, and we need to root it out wherever it rears its head.”

“The Covid crisis has shown that where there is a political way to get people off the streets it can be done, but we need to have long-term policies in place, like building more social housing to get people out of temporary accommodation.”

“One of the main issues that can sometimes plague this issue is a lack of leadership, so it’s fantastic to see this group of young people grasping at this and showing their compassion on such an important issue.”

OACT’s NCS Manager Kieran Sherratt said, “Our NCS group have been working together over the past two weeks after pledging their hours to help get the country back up and running.”

“They agreed to tackle the issue of homelessness in Oldham and had created a podcast, poster and written to the local MPs of Oldham regarding this issue.”

“As a result of their tenacious efforts Jim McMahon kindly joined us online on our last day of programme. Jim provided an insight into his day to day life along with the measures he was going to tackle the issue. It was great to have Jim join us online, it was a highlight of the experience for everyone involved in the programme and validated the efforts of the young people.”

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