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The Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM) has been recognised for its national education campaigns on gambling-related harm with four awards.
Of particular significance was YGAM’s Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme, which provided training and resources to teachers and youth workers, delivered in collaboration with GamCare and with support from the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC).
The charity picked up the PSHE Education Award at the virtual Children & Young People Now Awards ceremony, hosted by Alan Dedicoat.
This recognition focuses on honouring organisations that ‘provide outstanding resources to educators for PSHE education, delivering materials and lesson plans that align cohesively with current national curriculum requirements’.
“Our dedicated Education Team are absolutely delighted to receive this award in recognition of our PSHE Resources,” said Linda Scolllins Smith, Head of the National Programme at YGAM.
“We, as qualified teachers, wanted to ensure our resources were practical and easy to use for teaching staff and enjoyable for children and young people whilst addressing difficult topics such as mental health and addiction.
“As part of the Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme, we have been able to roll out these resources to teachers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. We receive consistently positive feedback from teachers and PSHE leads who say our purposeful resources allow them to address these topics meaningfully with the children they work with.”
In addition to receiving the PSHE Education Award, YGAM also secure the Silver Awards for ‘Best Communications during COVID-19’ – along with design agency partner Me&You Creative – as well as being honoured with ‘Best use of Digital for Education’ title and the Bronze Award for ‘Best use of Digital for a Charity.
Amy Bussey, YGAM’s Education Manager for Yorkshire & Humber, added: “We are so honoured to receive this award and hope that it gives us a platform to reach even more young people.
“It’s fantastic to get this acknowledgement and such a wonderful reward for the hard work that the team have put into our Education Programme. I hope we can continue to work with youth facing professionals to inform, educate and safeguard our young people on such important topics.”
The awards follow the news that YGAM and GamCare had surpassed the first-year targets for the Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention programme, training 2,906 practitioners in 2020, who in turn provided educational resources to 184,700 young people.
