Campaigners and charity workers will be sleeping rough this Friday, with the aim of supporting homeless charities. It will be apart of the ‘Sleep Easy’ event which will be hosted for the tenth successive year.
The event will take place on Friday 15th March from 07:00pm and will finish at 07:00am on the 16th March. It hopes to replicate the conditions that homeless people face on a daily basis for sponsored sleepers for the allocated 12 hours.
Last year, the ‘Sleep Easy’ event raised more than £10,500 for the charity’s capital appeal to build new emergency overnight accommodation for the homeless in Lincoln.
The Nomad Trust and the Lincolnshire YMCA are leading the initiative that is set for this Friday and they hope to raise over £30,000 for the cause. They launched a capital appeal to raise £1.2 million for a new day centre, back in September 2018.
Since 2010, across the UK more than 6,000 people have slept rough for a night, in order to raise vital funds for local YMCA services.
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Marc Jones is participating in the event and he said this when asked about it’s impact: “Sleeping rough for one night doesn’t begin to replicate the horrific conditions and hardship faced by those who are genuinely homeless.
“But an event like this is vital for raising much needed funds and for raising the profile of an issue that our society needs to face and deal with”.
Homelessness has proven to be a complex issue in the county and the organisations involved have made it a priority to ensure that there are adequate facilities for these people going forwards.
YMCA Lincolnshire currently operates 129 units of accommodation, with the Nomad Trust’s Night shelter housing 23 emergency beds.
Please note: sleepers must be aged 16 or over. Those aged 16 and 17 must be accompanied by an adult on a one adult to a one young person ratio.
To find out more about the event, please visit www.lincsymca.co.uk and for more information about the appeal visit www.nomadtrust.org.