YGAM Launches New Awareness Program for Ethnic Minorities

The Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM), a UK charity that seeks to help prevent problem gambling amongst the young, has launched a new education program in Greater London and the Home Counties.

The program seeks to increase awareness of and address problem gambling amongst young people from ethnic minorities, who have been found to suffer disproportionately from gambling harm. It has been developed together with TalkGEN CIC, Red Card Gambling Support Project CIC, and Clearview Research and it will be delivering workshops to those aged 14 to 24 from ethnic minorities, as well as training community leaders.

TalkGEN and Red Card Gambling Support Project will create the educational content and it will focus on the socio-cultural and religious attitudes within the communities, in particular in relation to the shame and stigma towards gambling. YGAM and Clearview Research are tasked with providing insights for the sessions.

The 2-year pilot scheme, which has a goal of directly reaching 16,600 young people, will include short films to increase awareness of problem gambling within African and Asian communities, together with self-help information and signposting materials designed for the age of the participants.

Clearview will also be creating a Theory of Change model for the program and will aim to achieve formal assured status from City & Guilds. Furthermore, it will act as an independent evaluation partner for the initiative, which is receiving funding from the UK Gambling Commission and is set to become part of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms.

We’re proud to be part of this purposeful collaboration with lived experience and diversity at its heart. The project builds on the recommendations from the Clearview Research; ‘Gambling: The young BAME perspective’, commissioned by GambleAware in 2019. YGAM will take the lead on the training of community and faith leaders who once trained will deliver the programme to young people […] I am confident that collectively we’ll deliver some helpful perspectives on how to engage with minority communities, contributing to the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms.

Lee WillowsCEO of YGAM