GambleAware commits £2.5m to new Gambling Education Hubs
The new facilities will use early intervention and prevention methods to reduce gambling harms among children and young people in Britain, delivering training that focuses on core youth sectors, including youth services, family services and formal education.
This, GambleAware said, would offer youth practitioners, teachers and youth organisations an increased awareness and understanding of the risks associated with gambling and the impact of gambling harms, as well as the services available to young people.
The facilities will be based on the existing Scottish Gambling Education Hub, which, run by Fast Forward, has been operating for more than seven years.
“To reduce the risk of young people experiencing gambling harms, these new Hubs will help provide youth practitioners and organisations in England and Wales with the skills and confidence to educate young people about the risks related to gambling, the harms associated with it and where to go to for support and advice,” GambleAware said.
To support the new project, GambleAware has issued two new invitations to tender for the design, delivery and development of the new hubs.
Winning bids are expected to demonstrate an involvement of people with lived experience of gambling harms in the development of training content, its delivery and any supporting tools or resources.
The deadline for applications to the tenders is set for 2 November.
The project comes after GambleAware last month said it would commit £4.0m in funding to Great Britain’s first academic research hub specialising in gambling harms research.
GambleAware will help fund the project through an eight-month grant award process, saying the new hub will support its aim of creating a society safe from gambling harms and help deliver its strategic objective to actively build academic research capacity.
Also last month, GambleAware announced several new senior appointments, including a chief operations officer, chief commissioning officer and chief communications officer, as part of a spree of new hires.