Tag Archives: de paul international

Olly Grender and Alison Suttie to sleep out for World Homelessness Day

It’s World Homelessness Day next Wednesday. To mark the occasion and highlight the plight of young people forced to sleep on the streets, Lib Dem peers Alison Suttie and Olly Grender will be sleeping out overnight. They are raising money for De Paul, a charity which helps young people who are affected by homelessness.

Already they have raised more than £1000 for De Paul. On their Just Giving page, they explain why they are doing this:

This will be our third year of sleeping out just once a year for this charity. Depaul UK is a fantastic youth homelessness charity providing housing and support to 16-25 year olds who do not have a safe place to sleep.

According to government figures, the number of young people sleeping rough in England increased by 28 per cent, between 2016 and 2017. No young person should find themselves sleeping on the streets.

Depaul UK believe that every young person deserves a home and a stake in their community, which is why they work tirelessly to provide the stability and support young people need to progress beyond homelessness.

In 2017, they supported 3,763 young people empowering them to lead better, more independent lives.

This year, to raise vital funds for the emergency and preventative services they provide nationally, Alison and I will team up again and will be sleeping out at the Kia Oval on Wednesday 10th October. That evening before the sleep out we will hear from Depaul staff about the great work they’ve been doing. We will then buy some cardboard from Depaul and bed down for the night.

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Olly Grender writes…Why Alison Suttie and I are sleeping out tonight

Don’t know about the rest of you but I love my bed.  Nothing makes me appreciate it more than the annual DePaul International sleepout.  

Tonight Alison Suttie and I will be bedding down in the Somerset House courtyard.  We are in a safe secure place in comparison with most people who are homeless and on the streets.

But a night sleeping out in central London is a stark reminder to us of what too many people endure – and in growing numbers.   You don’t feel safe.  You don’t really sleep.  You spend the day feeling pretty ropey.  That is just one night.

The next day I will speak in a debate in the Lords about availability of housing – what a sorry tale that has been over the decades and lies at the heart of a growing crisis of homelessness here in the UK.  Alison has seen DePaul’s work in Odessa in Ukraine and in Bratislava in Slovakia in her international work with Tuberculosis NGOs.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 4 Comments
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