The New South Wales Office of Responsible Gambling has revealed that four new projects have received a total funding amount of AU$236,000 through the group’s Odds on Youth program.
Odds on Youth is a capacity building program which partners with youth organisations to reduce gambling harm among young people, with the program’s first round taking place in September 2019 before a second in March of this year.
The program involves three stages of a one day gambling harm education workshop to increase the knowledge and skills of youth workers to address gambling harm, engagement with a ‘Gambling Help’ counselling service, and grants of up to $60,000 for the participating youth organisations to implement their own prevention intervention for young people.
The four new projects will be rolled out by youth organisations in South West Sydney who took part in a gambling harm education workshop in the aforementioned second round of the program.
Natalie Wright, NSW Office of responsible gambling director, asserts that working with youth organisations allows the office to fund projects that engage with young people and their families to stop gambling harm before it occurs:
“Research shows that people aged 18-24 who gamble are more likely to experience gambling harm which is why we have programs like Odds on Youth, helping provide education for these communities with a focus on early intervention,” she says.
The grants have been awarded to the following organisations:
- Cumberland City Council ($60,000): Cumberland Odds on Youth – a local awareness campaign and education resource about gambling harm in the Cumberland area, co-designed with young people.
- Fairfield City Council ($60,000): Pay to Play? – a series of videos to educate young people in the Fairfield local area. The videos will be made with input from young people and will help them identify gambling harm.
- Headspace Campbelltown ($60,000): Cash Me Outside – targeting young people in the Campbelltown, Camden, Wollondilly and Wingecarribee areas, this project will include education resources, lived experience stories and capacity building for youth workers to help them identify and respond to young people at risk of gambling harm.
- Woodville Alliance ($56,000): Game Over: The Vietnamese Youth Project – the production of youth friendly and culturally appropriate short videos about gambling and gambling harm for young people from a Vietnamese background living in the Fairfield area.
