BeGambleAware delves into youth prevention activity, referral pathways and the treatment available to young people suffering with gambling addictions with its Webinar on Youth and Gambling.

Who is it?

Simone Vibert, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Analyst at The Children’s Commissioner’s Office

Kenny Imafidon, Co-Founder and Managing Director of ClearView Research

Warren Hughes, Project Manager at Fast Forward

Kev Clelland, Operations Director at Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM)

Alexa Roseblade, Senior Programme Manager (Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme) at GAMCARE

Louise Moseley, Senior Service Manager (Young People Service) at GAMCARE

What is being said?

Vibert, who acted as the Moderator for the session, explained how a new initiative launched by the organisation is targeting young people: “You may have seen last week that we launched a big project called The Childhood Commission which is going to set out what needs to be done to transform childrens’ life choices over the next 10 years. It will be informed by a survey called The Big Ask, which is aiming to be the largest survey of children in England ever.

“I’m here with another hat on and that’s as a former researcher at the cross-party think tank, Demos. In 2016, we launched a pilot gambling education project consisting of four lessons, which reached 650 secondary school pupils across the country. Those lessons were designed to teach children about the risks of gambling, where to go for support, and concepts more broadly applicable to risky behaviour in general, such as delayed gratification.”

Comparing resources, Roseblade, who has headed up national education programmes in the past, noted how GAMCARE has ‘embedded young people’s voices’ in its initiatives: “Our programme is very new and we started at the beginning of 2020 so we’re going to run for four years. It’s something that we’re really proud of that we ran our programme in partnership, so it’s GAMCARE, our local delivery partners and YGAM. We’re working together to deliver a programme of education, training and support for young people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Together, we’re going to raise gambling related harms as an awareness and empower young people to make safer choices and get the support that they need.

“Ninety percent of the people that we work with say they haven’t received any training related to young people or gambling before they came to our sessions so there’s a real need and we want to change that by the end of our four years.

She also said on the coronavirus crisis: “Like many services, we were impacted by the COVID restrictions, making 2020 a really tough year for outreach and education in general. But we tried to use this as an opportunity to develop our joint service. We had to pivot to online delivery when most of our delivery previously was face-to-face, and we had to amend some of our traditional delivery models so shortening sessions.”

Why should I watch it?

To understand the support that is available for young people and how gambling harm can be prevented.

Where can I see more?
Source: BeGambleAware YouTube Channel