by Dr Tom Bason (Coventry University), Francesca Howard (Fast Forward), Wendy Knight (Early Knights Ltd)
This blog describes a small-scale exploratory research project that tested how to raise awareness about gambling harms among young people and adults living in deprived areas of Scotland. We used classroom-based activities and Family Fun Days. It was funded by a Research Innovation Fund Seedcorn Grant from the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research. The Seedcorn Grant scheme is for early-stage research projects to test ideas, generate new insights and build working relationships with external partners, from which larger-scale impactful projects can be developed.
The issue of gambling-related harms is increasingly concerning, particularly in Scotland, where treatment services lag behind the rest of the UK. This project explored different ways of engaging local communities in deprived areas to raise awareness of gambling harms and services that can support people who are impacted by them. We tested two activities:
Classroom Activities: Our partner Fast Forward – a charity that promotes young people’s health and wellbeing through education and training – conducted classroom-based activities with 12–14-year-olds in two schools that serve catchment areas ranked among the most deprived in Scotland. Students watched Fast Forward’s ‘Trust Me’ movie a week prior to a workshop in which Fast Forward staff led discussions on topics like gambling advertising, reducing gambling risks, the impact on others, and available support services. Around 110 students participated in these discussions. Following this, the students created sports shirt designs with positive messages about preventing gambling harms, resulting in 123 submissions – examples of which are shown below. The idea was for students to think about alternative messages to the gambling operator logos seen on the shirts of professional sports players. Some of the students’ designs were printed on T-shirts that were distributed at the Family Fun Days.
Community Events: We ran two Family Fun Days at the same schools, using rounders games to draw in local communities, followed by indoor workshops on gambling harms that were facilitated by Fast Forward. This approach integrated the educational component into the day’s activities, with the aim of making the workshop feel like a natural continuation of the fun rather than a separate, formal session. Food from local vendors was freely available at both events, which was an important part of engaging participants and provided an opportunity to tell local food vendors about the project. The RCA Trust – part of the National Gambling Support Network – were also on hand to provide professional help if it was needed.
In total, 24 people attended the community events, including students from the schools, their family members, teachers and local politicians. As well as testing how community sports activities can be used to raise awareness about gambling harms, some adults from the local community engaged directly with Fast Forward staff about their own gambling issues. The events also facilitated valuable conversations between project team members and local politicians about the issues facing local communities, such as the presence of betting shops on high streets in more deprived areas.
T-shirts featuring designs by the students were distributed at the Family Fun Days and worn by the rounders players and other attendees. These shirts, worn by school , sparked additional conversations about gambling harms. For example, a chance conversation at the gym with a mental health nurse – prompted by one of the shirts – resulted in Fast Forward delivering a gambling harm train session to local mental health workers. Materials, including posters designed by students, were left with the schools to display both the work and messages about gambling harms.
What we learned: Through this seedcorn project, we achieved our primary aim of showing how community-based sports-themed activities can be a hook to engage young people and the wider community to explore gambling and gambling harms. The project demonstrated the value of bringing together Fast Forward’s expertise of engaging young people in discussions around sensitive topics (e.g. using video as a medium to open up conversations) with Wendy Knight’s lived experience of gambling harms. We learned the importance of having resources to offer schools and students (such as T-shirts and posters) to encourage engagement; and needing to find times for the class-based activities that worked for the schools, given how far in advance they have to plan. The project also highlighted some of the practical challenges of conducting research with young people under 18, such as getting parental consent to participate in research and having a Plan B to sensitively deal with situations where some young people have got parental consent and others do not.
About the project team: The project was led by Coventry University, working with Fast Forward and Early Knights Ltd. The project team comprised Dr Tom Bason, Associate Professor, Centre for Business in Society, Coventry University; Francesca Howard, Programme Manager, Scottish Gambling Education Hub, Fast Forward; and Wendy Knight, Director of Early Knights Ltd.
Family Fun Days: We held two Family Fun Days in public parks in Walsall and Sandwell, West Midlands. These are areas with a high proportion of residents from minority ethnic communities, which are also local to Gordon Moody’s gambling harms treatment and support services. We wanted to test if Family Fun Days, centred around community rounders matches, might be an effective way to raise awareness of gambling-related harms among women from minority ethnic communities. The events were advertised in public places locally and to schools. Rounders was facilitated through Rounders England in conjunction with Early Knights Ltd and t-shirts with the participating organisations’ logos provided to participants. Gordon Moody representatives attended to provide information about the service. Food was provided and an interactive talk on gambling-related harms was delivered by Red Card Gambling Support.