Images taken from the event, courtesy of (c) Tony Mould – My Brighton and Hove Website

 

On 30th January 2010, 30 brave volunteers took part in Sleep Easy and slept rough outside St Peter's church in Brighton to raise money for the invaluable work of Sussex Central YMCA.  This national event, Sleep Easy, is about sleeping rough so others don't have to.

The aim of the event was to raise awareness of the conditions many homeless young people endure every night as well as raise money to help individual young people across Sussex.  Chas Wlaker, Deputy CEO of Sussex Central YMCA, took part in Sleep Easy and says of his experience "it was one of the most uncomfortable and cold nights of my life.  It opened my eyes to what people who are homeless go through; sleeping rough really is soul destroying".

During the evening sleepers were encouraged by visits from The Mayor, Nancy Platts - Labour Candidate for Brighton Pavillion and Mike Weatherly - Conservative Candidate for Hove & Portslade.  The night was kicked off with a shelter building competition and entertainment including live music, story telling and games, until it was time for the sleepers to bed down for the night in their cardboard box constructions.  Temperatures dipped to -4 c and many were unable to sleep.  At 6.30am the breakfast arrived and the sleepers were very happy to go home to their warm beds.

Preparing snacks for the Sleep Easy event Mark, one of the sleepers reported "it was -4 c and ice formed on top of the cardboard box I was sleeping under.  Drunken clubbers with kebabs, police sirens and double-decker buses provided the soundtrack to a noisy night.  Considering I had a perfectly warm and comfy bed at home to go to it was a strange thing to be doing.  The point was to raise money and awareness for Sussex Central YMCA and the work they do to prevent youth homelessness in Brighton.  In the cardboard box next to me was a lady with her 8 year old daughter.  She was also choosing to do this for one night.  She said that if it wasn't for the support she had received from the YMCA she and her family would have been homeless and so she wanted to help the YMCA to raise money.  She also wanted her daughter to experience something of what life might be like for homeless people".

 

Outside St Peter's Church in Brighton

The event raised over £3,000 which will go to help 3 schemes across the organisation.  Part of the money will go towards running our PEER Education project; this is a group of young people going into schools and collages to share their personal experiences of homelessness and talk about the pitfalls of leaving home too quickly including the negative impact this has had on their lives.  The funds raised will also go towards sending some of our young people who live in our hostels on a life-changing trip to Gambia where they will run sporting programmes and take sporting equipment and teaching resources out to the Gambia schools who are desperately short of resources.  The rest of the money will go into our fund which is dedicated to helping individuals who are in crisis.