GambleAware’s Community Resilience Fund Reaches Over 100,000 in its First Year
GambleAware’s Community Resilience Fund (CRF) has reported its achievements for the first year, highlighting its impact in delivering support to communities at risk of gambling harm across England, Wales, and Scotland. The fund’s efforts focus on raising awareness and providing accessible support for those historically underrepresented in gambling support services.
Expanding Support to At-Risk Communities
Through the CRF, GambleAware provided grants to 21 community-based organizations across the UK to offer gambling harm support.
The initiative particularly aimed to reach underrepresented groups, including people from ethnic minority and marginalized communities, as well as those in areas of high deprivation.
According to the report, this approach has succeeded in boosting awareness of gambling harms and increasing early intervention for those most vulnerable.
Early Intervention and Capacity Building
The report highlighted that the CRF grants enabled community organizations to improve their support capabilities, with staff noting enhanced confidence and knowledge for assisting individuals affected by gambling harm. T
his support structure enabled over 100,000 people to engage with awareness messaging, distributed through various outreach efforts such as information stands and leaflet distribution.
Chief Commissioning & Strategy Officer Anna Hargrave underscored the importance of this initiative:
“Gambling harm can affect anyone, but we know certain communities are at higher risk of experiencing harm. These are the people we wanted to reach with our Community Resilience Fund. We are pleased that the organizations who received funding were able to help so many people in their communities, especially as many of the people they work with are from marginalized groups who may not usually access gambling support services.”
Introducing a New Approach to Harm Prevention
GambleAware described the CRF as a new model for commissioning gambling harms services, designed to fund organizations previously outside the charity’s network. This model allowed GambleAware to explore effective methods for reaching diverse target groups and to understand what interventions work best in different settings.
Through this initiative, over 5,200 individuals received light-touch interventions, such as gambling harm screening, while 720 people were provided with more intensive one-on-one support. However, Hargrave acknowledged that stigma remains a barrier:
“It is concerning that stigma may have stopped some people coming forward for help from the organizations which received funding. At GambleAware, we have campaigned to try and end the stigma associated with gambling harm so that people feel able to come forward and get support, and we will continue working towards this goal.”
