THIS week, we want to call to mind and celebrate some of the work of Oxford United and its community trust for the community across Oxford and Oxfordshire, write Ben Heath and Trevor Lambert of OxVox.

We are incredibly fortunate to belong to a club which values these activities, but many readers may be unaware how much is being achieved, so we at OxVox thought it would be good to share details of a few keynote projects.

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Mental health support: Earlier this month the club, in association with Oxfordshire Mind and the Joey Beauchamp Foundation, held a mental health workshop open to all, and which was attended by more than 200 people.

Des Buckingham, Will Vaulks and other men’s players took part. This was the first stage in a wider campaign under the heading Can We Talk?, which will seek to encourage awareness of, and support for, mental health issues.

The most eye-opening feature of this meeting, surely, was the fantastic attendance. It dwarfed the numbers at many fans’ forums!

It speaks to a willingness for fans and non-fans alike to come together to discuss and engage with this vital issue of our times. It also suggests a level of unmet need in the community for mental health support.

The prospects of future work hosted by the club and its community trust are bright and we look forward together to better outcomes for those experiencing mental challenges.

Courses and social events: The community trust is hugely active around the city and county with thousands of children and young people attending holiday camps, skill centres, after school clubs, and youth engagement programmes.

Non-football social events happen too, such as the well-attended monthly Manor Club lunch meetings with guest speakers aimed at supporters aged over 50. The trust’s website at ouitc.org gives details.

Dreaming Spires project: Associated with the new stadium project, this club project has so far allocated grants of £1,000 to each of 10 community projects.

A panel judged the winners to be Chalgrove Cavaliers FC, Leys Community Development Initiative (CDI), Kidlington Cricket Club, Oxford Wheelchair Basketball Club, Dorchester Cricket Club, Bicester Widows, Kidlington Youth FC, Active Oxfordshire, Emmaus Oxford, and MyVision Oxfordshire.

Space precludes us describing all of them, but to take one example, Leys CDI works with children aged 9-17 and those aged 50 plus, delivering over a dozen weekly sessions including yoga, gardening, singing, arts and crafts, Tai Chi and gaming.

The grant will help to support after-school programmes and sessions which engage with over 550 people annually.

Remembrance: This year on Remembrance Day, in addition to the club’s exemplary recognition of the occasion on match day, the club has supported the Royal British Legion by auctioning match-worn ‘poppy’ men’s first team shirts to raise funds.

Oxford United is not just about the football, and in this short piece we have tried to give a flavour of the contribution that the club, the community trust, and supporters are making to the life of the Oxfordshire community.