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Sleepout 2021
Support the Sleepout
Did you help us raise over £10,000 for the homeless in Romford on our 2019 Brewery Sleepout Event?
Well, we’re delighted to announce that the Sleepout is back this year!
The Brewery Sleepout 2021 will support homeless charities, Ahava Community and Zarach. Sadly, nearly half (44%) of all people sleeping rough in the UK on a single night in autumn are in London and the South East so we are doing our bit to raise awareness and vital funds to help the homeless in our local Romford community.
One night sleeping rough for charity
The management team and retailers from The Brewery, Romford’s retail and leisure complex, will come together for one night in late November to experience what it is like to sleep out on the streets. Based on our collective experience in 2019, it will be a cold, uncomfortable and overall humbling experience. Each person will be fundraising individually and also as a team to raise as much awareness and cash as possible in the run up to the event, on the night, and until the 24th December 2021.
How can you get involved?
We would love you to please support our event in a few ways:
- Make any donation you can through the dedicated page https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/brewery-sleepout
- Buy a ‘Making Homelessness History’ t-shirt, beanie hat or reusable coffee mug at the Hope4Havering shop in The Brewery – please visit the store for more details
- Hold your own Sponsored Sleepout at home – we’re not asking you to sleep outside (but you can if you want!), but how about getting your whole family to fundraise with us by sleeping on the floor or in a different room? We’d love to hear your ideas and see your pictures on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Please use our fundraising link above to enter your sponsorship efforts to our total.
Why are we fundraising?
The aim of The Brewery Sleepout 2021 is to raise awareness of those less fortunate, who sleep every night on the streets. On any given night, tens of thousands of families and individuals are experiencing homelessness across Great Britain. The longer someone experiences rough sleeping the more likely they are to face challenges around trauma, mental health and drug misuse. Nearly half of all people sleeping rough in the UK on a single night in Autumn are those in London and the South East of England.
With furlough measures ending, evictions looming and the cost of heating rising, many households are struggling to keep hold of their properties. Charities have also been hit with fundraising activities on hold for almost two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Data shows that there has been an increase in homelessness within Havering and the event and funds raised will be donated to Romford based charity, Ahava Community, formally the Hope4Havering charity and Charity Zarach who deliver beds and basics to children in poverty.
Ahava Community
Ahava Community works tirelessly to help and support the local homeless people by providing shelter and offering transformation programmes, which helps to mentor vulnerable individuals with the main philosophy being ‘Rescue. Revive. Renew.’. The charity has recently extended beyond Romford to cover areas including Harlow and Dartford in Kent.
Kim Merry, founder of Ahava Community explains:
“The public see the rough sleepers on the high street but don’t see the many riding on buses, sleeping behind stairwells or hidden in the parks. Homeless people are of all ages and from all social demographics. We can have a manager who has overseen 200 people sleeping on the streets alongside a young person who has had a disagreement with their parents, or has no parents at all.”
Zarach
Zarach is a charity committed to helping children and families who are living in poverty. Active in both schools and the community, they have witnessed a surge in requests for help in the latest lockdown, many from affluent areas. This year, to further raise awareness of homelessness among families, we are looking to encourage local schools to support the cause with their own sponsored events.
Was it a success in 2019?
It is the second year that The Brewery has supported local charities to raise awareness of homelessness and raise essential funds to help combat homelessness. The last Brewery Sleepout in 2019 raised over £10k for the charity and is aiming to exceed this target in 2021. Please view the 2019 Sleepout video here:
Tom Stobbart, manager of The Brewery explains:
“Remember that homelessness is not just the person sitting on the floor, it could be the person sitting next to you in the library or in the queue in front of you at the post office. If a person is carrying a large number of bags and still in the same position when you have walked past they may be in need. Speak to them and recommend going to the PASC to get a referral or the Salvation Army for something to eat. This problem won’t go away overnight, but maybe us helping to raise money to support charities that are working hard to solve the problem can make a difference. Our previous Sleepout raised over £10k, we’ve got our sights on raising even more this year.”
On the evening of the sleepout, key speakers will share their personal experiences of being homeless and how they rebuilt their lives on the day of the event. Tom adds:
“When we think about homelessness, we envisage people sleeping rough on the streets. But this serious issue extends far beyond that. It could be a young person forced to live in sheltered accommodation while studying hard for a degree, or a mum forced to flee from her home as a result of domestic abuse and living in a temporary bed and breakfast with her children. We may be a retail complex, but community is a large part of our ethos. We believe that by hosting this event, we’ll begin to break the stereotype of homelessness and show it can affect everyone. Just because you have somewhere to sleep, it doesn’t mean you have a home”.
The overnight sleepout is a Brewery management-only activity, but the entire Romford community can easily get involved. Those families wishing to support can donate food and useful kitchen items to Hope4Havering in the centre. Alternatively, donations can be made through the dedicated Crowdfunder Page and merchandise can be purchased from the Hope4Havering shop at The Brewery Shopping Centre.
All fundraising will be split between Ahava Community (75%) and Zarach (25%). With additional funds, these dedicated charities will be able to help even more rough sleepers in Romford and beyond.
- 160,000 homeless households in Britain (Crisis, the national charity for homeless people)
- In the last three years, over half of state school teachers in Britain (56%) have worked at a school with children who were homeless or became homeless. (Report by Shelter and YouGov 2020)
- In the last three years, over half of state school teachers in Britain (56%) have worked at a school with children who were homeless or became homeless. (Report by Shelter and YouGov 2020)
- Nearly half (44%) of all people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn are in London and the South East. Rough sleeping snapshot in England in Autumn 2020
- To date, Ahava Community has helped 1,814 people, provided 94,747 beds and housed 657 people in Havering.
- Charity Zarach has 200 partner schools in their referral network, they receive up to 20 referrals a week and to date have delivered 1,200 bed bundles.
For full press release and event poster details, please download below
