Walking in Oldham
Across Greater Manchester, there is a clear recognition of the importance of walking to population scale change in physical activity and there is widespread understanding of the critical role of walking - for leisure, for travel and for everyday activity.
Milltown to Mountains Case Story
Milltown to Mountains is a partnership between Uprojects, WiFi North West and BAME Connect. This group of Oldham women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin started walking from scratch in their local urban parks. They built up their walking bit by bit, despite the challenges presented by lockdown, to the point where they were able to conquer Mount Snowdon.
Community Investment Fund grants
GM Walking has given grants to nearly 90 local voluntary and community groups with the aim of getting Greater Manchester walking. They offered the grants to support a huge range of activities that encourage people who are usually less active to start or to increase the amount they regularly walk. Almost half of the successful applications were from organisations based in the most deprived 20% of the region.
They gave a total of £53,609 to five organisations across Oldham, including to:
- Saddleworth Community Project CIC to run quarterly Walk for Life events
- Starling to create and distribute a sensory materials pack featuring a range of fun walking activities for young neurodiverse people
- WiFi NW and UProjects to develop a new walking project for women from diverse ethnic backgrounds to take them gradually from inactivity to much longer walks, including climbing Mount Snowdon
- ABCD After Breast Cancer Diagnosis to train current and former breast cancer patients as Nordic walking instructors who will then deliver this activity to other breast cancer patients
- Mahdlo (Oldham Youth Zone) to increase the number of young people participating in, enjoying and leading walking activities in Oldham