This report is an evaluation of GambleAware's Community Resilience Fund (CRF). The CRF was initially developed to provide 12 months of funding to mitigate the effects of the cost-of-living crisis on gambling harms, for underserved and ethnic minority communities. It provides funds to community-based organizations to raise awareness and deliver early intervention programs for gambling harms. Data for the evaluation is from reports submitted by funded organizations, discussions at a learning event with eight funded organizations, observations of project activities, and interviews with 19 project staff and partners.
Findings include:
- Regular awareness-raising activities for staff and volunteers (vs. one-off training sessions) were considered important to increase confidence in integrating conversations about gambling harms.
- Facilitating awareness-raising activities for staff of other organizations and people who use their services is seen as adding value to the facilitating organization's work.
- Organizations were better able to reach people at risk of gambling harm by integrating awareness-raising activities and support into existing services, and also by involving people with lived experience of gambling harms.
- Most organizations that received funding reported higher levels of engagement among their target populations in the second year of the program compared to the first year.
- Funded organisations will likely require commitments of long-term funding to continue to offer this information and support to people from minority ethnic communities.
