Hi I’m Bill, the chair of Men Behaving Dadly.
I’d like to give you a brief history on MBD. Steve K, back in 2000 ran 6 taster sessions of arts and crafts for dads and children which proved very popular and the MBD concept was born. The name Men Behaving Dadly was thought of very quickly 25 years ago to go on MBD’s first ever leaflet in 2000 by Steph Gill our brilliant secretary. Men Behaving Dadly soon caught on and became a well-recognised registered Charity in Oldham.

I first became aware of the group late 2002 when our family moved here. My wife took our two children at the time to the Parent and Toddlers group here at Greenacres Community centre. Steve K, who ran that, handed my wife a flyer for MBD and suggested I might try taking a look at this group for Dads and male carers on Saturdays. Since then, all three of my children have passed through the doors and my daughter Holly is currently an active volunteer at MBD and qualified Playworker with OPAG. The group enables Dads and male carers to play with their children in a safe environment, whilst the children make friendships with their peers. The extra bonus being Mum has a break for a couple of hours on Saturday and the children bond with other children outside of school – increasing their friendship pool.

When George my youngest son was about 10, he had a slightly obsessive fascination with the group’s trampoline shoes. Everyone found it hilarious—especially Jill, who ran the group at the time—because George was anything but quiet!
Fast forward ten years, and during a toy store clear-out, it hit us: George, now 20, might actually appreciate those very same trampoline shoes. So, my daughter Holly wrapped them up for Christmas.
When George (back for Christmas break from university) unwrapped them at home the room erupted with laughter. Ten years later, the same shoes that once fuelled endless giggles as a boy were now a perfect, hilarious, heartwarming gift that reminded us all just how wonderfully George marches to the beat of his own drum. The shoes hadn’t changed, but George had—sort of. He was taller, wiser, and still hilariously George. Some gifts are timeless, and some are just perfect reminders that no matter how old you get, a little bounce (and a lot of laughter) never goes out of style.

The group, apart from being open to all dads and male carers (married, partners, separated, single), is a focal point for weekend Dads who find it hard to have a place to entertain their children. The group is and always has been a non-judgemental, all inclusive, friendly welcoming environment. We try as often as possible to do educational and fun outdoor trips, we’ve been to many wonderful places: Magma furnace Rotherham, Manchester Science Museum, Eureka Halifax and trips to the seaside, including the Blackpool illuminations. We’ve also had countryside walks with picnics, pond dipping with Oldham Rangers Services, bike rides from Alexander Park with Oldham Ability Wheels Cycling. We’ve had a tower and tall talk at Chadderton fire station about fire safety, with access to fire engines which the children loved. When asked how many fire engines Oldham had, children’s guesses ranged from upwards. Adults were surprised to learn the answer is only six. All our weekend camping trips are at outdoor centres and under strict supervision, especially on our climb up the 3010-foot Tryfan in Snowdonia for our older children and able adults, my two lads included. Our partners on that occasion were Adventure Based Learning of Greenfield who took us through a very hard two-day long training session on the do’s and don’ts of climbing, and 5 of their instructors joined us at our camp and supervised us during the two-day camp. The group was registered with the charity commission in 2011, when I became Chair, a post I still hold until any coup haha. The most pleasing aspect of the group for me is when we welcome new members and watch nervous Dads and children over the weeks becoming fully involved and become part of the MBD family.

We’ve had some Dad’s who through the group have gained employment with others, a prime example being Paul an exile from Birmingham who was unemployed for a short while and after chatting with him I introduced him to Ryan who was a foreman for a construction company and after giving him a trial, they still work together on new projects 20 years later.

Both Rachel and I make sure all new Dads feel welcome and are introduced to the other group members. All decisions on the group’s weekly activities and outings are decided by the committee members i.e. the dads, and with the generosity of our funders sourced by bids and grants, done very professionally by Rachel, these can come to fruition. We have lots of amazing projects in the pipe line including our Idea’s fund research, partnering with British Science Assoc, Oldham Play Action Group and Salford University to create a dads wellbeing journal, we have been working on this project since 2023. A future project that we are sourcing funding for at the moment has come about because Matthew one of our newer brilliant dads who came to MBD with his 2 children (as of last week 3! Congratulations) Matthew is profoundly deaf and although Matthew is incredible at lip reading and has fitted in the group seamlessly, now part of the MBD family, the rest of the dads have expressed a want to learn sign language to make communication easier, we are hoping to source funding soon and start learning shortly.

My personal wish is that with the backing of our aforementioned funders this group will flourish in the years to come, giving yet to be met future Dads and children, the opportunity to meet, play and have adventures.