The Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM) has established a new training collaboration with the Police Cadets and the Fire Cadets.
Following YGAM’s training of several Police forces, including the London Met, this development has been a natural progression in charity’s delivery of the ‘Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme’. The training will help equip Police & Fire Cadet teams with the knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver educational sessions on gaming and gambling harms to the national networks of cadets.
The UK Fire Cadets are a national uniformed youth organisation supported by the National Fire Chiefs Council and individual Fire and Rescue Services. Alistair Macintosh, UK Fire Cadets National Manager, said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity to join with our colleagues at Volunteer Police Cadets to learn more about the impact that online gaming, gambling and advertising can have on the young people they are working with and I know they will put the training to good use in units across the country, thanks to YGAM ”
The Volunteer Police Cadets is a diverse group of young people aged 8 – 18 years, who have a desire to support their local communities and gain a practical understanding of policing, developing their leadership skills by undertaking challenging social action projects in their communities. Tim Mann, Training, Partnerships & Projects Lead for the Volunteer Police Cadets said: “Thank you YGAM for these eye-opening sessions and for providing access to excellent resources, we’ve learnt much about profit-driven targeting of young people through online gaming and gambling, online advertising not restrained by legislation that applies in real life and the damage that can occur as a result.”
YGAM is continuing to build its partnership with both the police and fire cadets and with their team of Education Managers in each region of England, Wales & Northern Ireland. The charity aims to develop and deliver training with more community-focused organisations, including Police schools and the Fire service.
Education Manager’s Katherine Sawyer and Sandy Thompson have jointly delivered YGAM’s training to both the Police & Fire cadets. Responsible for YGAM’s Education Training in the London area, Sandy Thompson said; “The enthusiasm and understanding that the police and fire cadet coordinators have shown for this often-overlooked aspect of safeguarding is fantastic. The relationships that they are able to build, means that the young people that they work with are more likely to open up and seek advice from both staff and volunteers.”
Katherine Sawyer, responsible for the Southwest region at YGAM, said; “We are looking forward to continuing this productive and rewarding working relationship with the Police and Fire cadets across the country, where both organisations can continue to educate about young people’s safety including gaming and gambling harm prevention.”
Both youth organisations were introduced to YGAM through the Youth United Network. Wendy Human, Operations Director at Youth United Foundation spoke about the organisation’s support for YGAM’s training: “YGAM provide key training on the subject of gaming and gambling harm prevention. We are pleased to have been able to introduce this work to our Network of 11 uniformed youth organisations for the benefit of young people. We look forward to working closely with YGAM in the future.”
If you are a teacher or youth worker and interested in our FREE training on gambling and gaming harms, then please visit https://www.ygam.org/book-a-workshop/
