On Thursday 21st November, Beacon Counselling Trust (BCT) hosted a stakeholder event in Liverpool focusing on the development and co-production of their new gambling-related harms programme for young people: ‘Sometimes It’s More Than A Game’. Over 50 stakeholders attended in person to hear from a range of speakers about the need for a programme for young people to address the issue of gambling harms, new and emerging themes young people face related to gambling and the role of the illegal gambling market as a particularly risky behaviour for young people.
The second half of the day focused on gathering insight from the stakeholders in attendance, with a focus group examining key themes BCT believe to be crucial in developing the best possible offer for young people. Discussion focused on reaching our diverse communities, how we can engage our local systems with this issue and appropriate content for the age groups the programmes is targeting. Attendees included professionals from public health teams, the NHS, third sector workers and those currently working within the gambling harms arena.