Gambling survey prepares to wrap up

There are just a few days left for community members to take part in the Community Gambling Survey, a project from Kahnawà:ke Shakotiia’takéhnhas Community Services (KSCS) and Concordia University that aims to shed light on gambling behaviours across different demographics in Kahnawake.

“We really want to get an understanding, a snapshot, of the current status of gambling and how people feel about it,” said Maris Jacobs, executive director of PlanIt Consulting & Communications, which has been leading the implementation of the survey in the community since it launched in the fall of last year.

“The end goal is really to identify the needs of the community. We want to know, do people need help? If they do, how can we help? How can we provide programming and services that address addictions or problems with gambling?”

PlanIt has nearly reached its goal of gathering 1,000 responses for the survey, and Jacobs is confident that they will surpass their target by the time the survey closes. Each respondent is entitled to a $25 Shop Kahnawake gift card upon completion of the survey.

Jacobs is hoping that the final push in the coming days could see more community members aged 65 and over respond to the survey - right now, that group is slightly underrepresented in the responses.

“For a survey like this, especially one that’s so big, it’s really important that we have an accurate representation of the community,” Jacobs said.

The survey is part of a community-led study launched in 2018 by KSCS primary prevention and addiction response services, in collaboration with a Concordia research team.

Researchers have conducted interviews with the community already, and now have been working on survey responses, using population data from the Community Health Survey to identify age groups to target.

“We want to have enough people from each demographic to tell as close to a true story as we can about gambling habits,” Jacobs said.

Once the survey closes at the end of the month, Concordia and KSCS will be analysing the data collected and compiling a report with their findings.

“The intention is to have more talking circles and focus groups in the community to discuss the findings long-term, and to build programming or services that might answer some of the challenges that arose in the survey,” Jacobs said.

The link to complete the survey can be found on KSCS and PlanIt’s social media, and anyone with questions can contact [email protected], or check out PlanItKahnawake.ca/gambling. The survey will be open until the end of the month.

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