In 2023 thrivin’ together held a number of focus groups with women with lived experience of gambling. Topics included relationships, barriers to support, finances, health and helped us identify themes and actions to help thrivin’ shape support and activities moving forwards. Thanks to a grant from ROSA and support from the Community Fund we will be hosting a webinar on what came out of those groups and what actions we’ve taken. Put the date in your diary and register your details here to allow us to send on a link nearer the time. #womengambletoo #affectedothers #livedexperience #co-production
Women, gambling & domestic abuse
Durham University are inviting women to participate in their study to create a support toolkit. This short video explains the aims of the project. If you wish to be involved please email DAGamblingharmsproject@gmail.com
Info sheet Gambling and Domestic Abuse – Supporting victims of gambling-related domestic abuse – A focus on women in social housing (durham.ac.uk)
Probation & Gambling Harm research invite
A research project on people who have lived experience of contact with probation services and experiences of gambling/gambling harm are inviting women to take part. This includes:
Affected others impacted by the gambling of someone else
Maybe you gamble sociably, but have been convicted of an unrelated offence
You only started gambling while in prison for an unrelated offence
Ultimately the research aims to understand how gambling may (or may not) impact on the lives of people who have also had contact with probation services.
Please see the information document below for contact details.
NatCen research invite
The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) are conducting a study on the relationship between gambling behaviour, suicidality and treatment support. They are inviting people with experience of both gambling related harms as well as suicidal ideations or attempts to join a Lived Experience Panel to support the research project.
The Lived Experience Panel would meet five times starting in June/July 2024 and will be conducted via Microsoft Teams. Panel members will be remunerated for their time at a rate of £75 for two hours to cover each engagement. An information sheet is below.
If you meet the criteria and are interested in becoming a panel member please email grhst@natcen.ac.uk
Steering & Advisory group invite
The GAMLINK research team at the University of Swansea are looking for a woman with lived experience of gambling and suicidality to join our Steering and Advisory group for a research project. The research project is examining the pathways from gambling to suicidality, and how people access healthcare services, such as GP’s and A&E, along this path. Additionally, we want to understand how we can help doctors and other medical professionals to identify people struggling with gambling.
The Steering and Advisory Group member would be invited to 2-3 meetings across the next year to discuss the progress of the research and provide feedback as to how this can be more applicable to those who have lived experience. It is very important to us to include people who have experiences of gambling (either yourself or someone close to you) in our research, and your insight is invaluable to the progress of the study.
If you are interested in taking part – please feel free to contact Pippa Boering (GAMLINK Research Assistant) at p.h.boering@swansea.ac.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!
We are recruiting!
We are currently recruiting for two part time posts
Peer Mentor – Gambling This role will support our partner Simon Community Scotland – Scotland based
Women & Gambling Co-ordinator Based with thrivin’ together – England focused
Apply by submitting your CV and completing an online application.
Deadline for both posts Wednesday 19 June at 12 noon
#womensupportingwomen #choicevoicechange
Affected Other Research Invite
Freya, a student at the University of Edinburgh is looking for volunteers for her Masters of Public Health dissertation project. The project will explore the experiences of people in the UK who have been affected by the gambling of a friend, family member, guardian, or partner. Specifically, this project is interested in how those affected by another person’s gambling realised they needed support, how they looked for support and their experiences of support. This project is being done as there is not enough research concerning those affected by another person’s gambling, and these experiences need to be understood as a launching off point for bigger research projects, and improving support systems.
If eligible, people who are interested in the project will be asked to do an online or telephone interview. They may want to do these interviews individually, or with a friend, family, member, guardian or partner who has also been affected by gambling. Anyone who chooses to take part will remain completely anonymous. In line with National Institute for Health and Care Research Guidelines, a £20 e-voucher will be available to everyone who participates. This is in recognition of time, efforts and experience.
If you are interested or have any questions, please do have a look at the information sheet and contact Freya on her email address at s1810790@ed.ac.uk
Courageous Joy programme awarded grant
thrivin’ together would like to announce they have secured a grant through the Reaching Communities England fund with The National Lottery. This three year grant will help us develop co-produced activities for women impacted by gambling, including affected others.
Through our 2023 Awards for All grant we were able to facilitate a number of focus groups identifying themes and gaps for women accessing support. This grant will enable us to develop timely responses to women in a safe and friendly community while developing our relationships with support within and beyond gambling recovery.
The grant will cover two part-time posts and a range of activities to pilot.
Founder Nadine Ashworth said “on behalf of our community I’d like to thank Reaching Communities in recognising the value of our work and women. We look forward to strengthening our offer of holding space for women and are excited about the potential of what will come from the Courageous Joy programme through our approach of choice, voice and change.”
Thanks to ROSA fund
We are proud to announce that thrivin’ together has been successful in securing a grant from ROSA, a funding distributor supporting and raising the voice of women and girls organisations. This grant will enable us to develop the content of our 2023 focus groups into a community report raising the voices of women impacted by gambling harm. By involving women who attended or co-facilitated the sessions we hope to reflect on and highlight the common themes and experiences of women which will also be presented at a webinar later in 2024.
A 2023 ROSA report Mapping the UK Women and Girls Sector and its Funding: Where Does the Money Go? shows that in 2021, a total of £4.1 billion worth of grants was awarded to charities, but the women and girls sector received just 1.8% of these. In addition, one third of all grants for ‘women and girls’ focussed activity – worth £24.7m – went to organisations with no specific focus on women and girls. This shows a worrying lack of priority for organisations tackling complex and systemic issues faced by women and girls in the UK.
As a women-specific organisation we recognise the struggle to be acknowledged and heard so receiving this grant is a huge validation to our women and the work we do. Thank you to ROSA from the thrivin’ together community.
#womengambletoo podcast
Founder Nadine recently worked with Danielle and Rhiannon on a #tellmeyourstory! podcast raising awareness of good news stories of people in recovery. The podcast covered a brief overview of Nadine’s addiction and recovery and discussed the creation and development of thrivin’ together and plans for the future. You may wish to watch this episode at this link (30 mins)