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Training Fund: Empowering Staff to Recognise Gambling Harms

Training Fund: Empowering Staff to Recognise Gambling Harms

Training Fund: Empowering Staff to Recognise Gambling Harms

Friday, January 10, 2025

 

Discover how our Training Fund enabled Cyrenians to equip their team with the skills and knowledge to tackle gambling harms. Through targeted training, Gambling Harm Champions are making a difference to those experiencing homelessness and harm through gambling.

Based in Scotland, Cyrenians aims to tackle the causes and consequences of homelessness through learning from lived experiences, by delivering targeted services that focus on prevention, early intervention and support into a home. They offer a range of services such as employment, reconnecting with the community and managing conflict. Cyrenians takes a public health approach to homeless prevention, addressing risk factors by working upstream to offer support at the earliest opportunity rather than waiting for a crisis to happen. 

Susan is the Outreach Services Manager for Edinburgh and leads the Chances: Homelessness and Gambling Harms Project, which was set up in 2023. The project provides tailored, non-judgmental one-to-one support to help individuals reduce or stop gambling. For family and friends impacted by gambling, the focus remains solely on their well-being, regardless of whether the person gambling is receiving support. 

The Need

During the project's establishment, a staff survey revealed a lack of understanding of gambling-related harms within the organisation. “Staff were unable to recognise gambling harms or know how to support someone if they were experiencing it,” Susan explained. While the organisation was exceptional at recognising alcohol and drug dependency due to their visible nature, gambling harms are often hidden and have a stigma surrounding them. 

“As a team we wanted to equip and embed skills and knowledge of gambling harms in the organisation so that it becomes part of our everyday culture and values.” 

To achieve this, the team introduced the Gambling Harm Champion role, which is embedded across different pillars of the organisation. These champions work to improve awareness and support for individuals affected by gambling, enhancing knowledge of its connection to homelessness. Ultimately, this will help improve the quality of support available to the people who use their services. Additionally, the Gambling Harm Champion role will also help shape this emerging workstream within Cyrenians, which is one of the few organisations in Scotland working to tackle gambling harm. 

The Training

The champions took part in a full day of training with the RCA Trust called Bet You Can Help, Level 2. This in-person training allowed the participants to be awarded with a level 2 qualification in tackling gambling-related harms accredited by the Royal Society of Public Health and regulated by Ofqual. 

The Impact

“We have seen an increase in conversations tak[ing] place about gambling within the organisation and are keen for this to grow and develop over time.” 

Feedback from the training course has been extremely positive. The champions who took part reported that they felt more informed about the issues surrounding gambling harm and more confident in raising and supporting discussions around gambling harms within their teams. Their knowledge of using tools such as Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) to determine a person’s level of risk was also greatly enhanced by the course. 

“I heard about the Training Fund whilst taking part in training put on by the Frontline Network. I applied online and found it straightforward and easy to complete and I was told that we were successful in being funded within a fortnight. The funds were transferred easily, and the feedback form was also easy to complete.” 

 

If you have, or your team has, a training need that you are struggling to pay for

APPLY TO OUR TRAINING FUND

and we will do all that we can to help.

 

Find out more about Cyrenians’ Chances: Homelessness and Gambling Harms Project here. 

For referrals or further information please contact: Chances@cyrenians.scot 

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