Soccer is a multicultural game, and Oakville is becoming more and more of a multicultural town.

With that in mind, Oakville Soccer Club believes it has found a way to improve the diversity of its membership.

This season, OSC program guides have been printed in French, Chinese and Arabic, the three most commonly-used languages in Oakville behind English, according to the Halton Multicultural Society.

“There’s a changing face of the community. We’re very cognizant of that and understand there are people for whom English might not be their first language,” said OSC executive director Dave Harris. “If they would like to be part of a community organization, maybe they need some help getting there.”

Several thousand brochures were printed in each of the three languages. Harris credited the multicultural society and the Town of Oakville for distributing the guides at community centres, places of worship, community grocery stores and other ethnic gathering places the OSC might not have even known to target.

“(Embracing diversity) is something we’ve been actively trying to do. Everybody says it, but we really want to put it into place,” said Harris, who does not know of any other soccer or hockey association in Canada that have printed brochures in multiple languages.

“We recognize that different cultural communities in Oakville are a strong part of the overall community, and we want to be part of their lives as well.”

Other recent OSC initiatives include partnering with Reach Out Centre for Kids (ROCK), United Way and the Canadian Mental Health Association to provide information to coaches, parents and players on the subject of mental health and the issues directly facing children today; working with Halton police and its child exploitation unit to educate membership on the dangers of cyber bullying; teaming with the Oakville Hornets Girls’ Hockey Association to make it easier for girls to play both sports; and the hiring of a sports psychologist.