Ditch Your Duvet with us this November!
SASH are inviting local families to join in the fun at their first ever virtual ‘sleepout’ event. Taking place on the 27th November 2020, participants of Ditch Your Duvet are asked to choose an unusual place in their home to sleep for the night all in the name of stopping youth homelessness in our community.
SASH’s annual Sleepout usually takes place in the grounds of Bootham School, York, bringing together over one hundred local people who are sponsored to spend a night out in the elements. Although not intended to replicate the experience of homelessness, the annual event has become a firm favourite with fundraisers who push themselves out of their comfort zone in order to raise as much money as possible for local young people facing homelessness. Each year the popular fundraising event raises roughly £30,000 of vital community income. Due to this year’s coronavirus pandemic and continued restrictions on physical gatherings, the charity is facing a major loss of fundraising income.
SASH is asking Ditch Your Duvet participants to pitch a tent in the back garden, build a den under the table or bunk down in the bathroom and collect sponsorship from friends and family to help raise as much money as possible to ensure young people facing homelessness have a warm and safe place to stay at a time of crisis. Last year, we provided over 300 young people with a safe place to sleep However, whilst putting a roof over someone’s head is essential at a time of crisis, it does not resolve the issues that lie at the root of homelessness. To address these, SASH works with hosts and partner organisations to provide the individual support that each young person needs. With the help of selfless hosts and the awesome efforts of fundraisers at events such as these, more vulnerable young people can have the bright future they deserve.
Ditch Your Duvet participants – or ‘duvet ditchers’ for short! – can look forward to lots of fun craft activities in their Welcome Packs as well as a packed schedule of virtual entertainment for the night. Once signed up, participants simply join the Facebook event on the night of the event and get stuck into den-building competitions, a fun quiz and even a bedtime story reading of Onjali Q Raúf’s award-winning children’s book, The Night Bus Hero, from Peaky Blinders star Samuel Edward-Cooke. There will be a great selection of prizes up for grabs, including a signed copy of The Night Bus Hero for one lucky winner. And for those looking for a ‘ready-made’ evening of family fun, for a small additional fee, participants can purchase a Craft Pack though the SASH website with everything you need to get stuck in straightaway including printed card activity templates, bunting, a sock puppet making kit and hot chocolate sachet.
To sign up, simply visit sash-uk.org.uk/get-involved/ditch-your-duvet and follow the instructions.
Notes to Editors
Contact: For more information, please contact Thea Burden (Communications Co-ordinator at SASH) on thea.burden@sash-uk.org.uk.
About SASH (Safe And Sound Homes)
- SASH works to prevent youth homelessness across North and East Yorkshire
- SASH provides an emergency accommodation placement service called Nightstop, where young people are placed with volunteer hosts for up to two weeks.
- SASH also provides a longer-term placement service, Supported Lodgings, with volunteer hosts for young people who cannot return home and cannot yet live independently.
- Ordinary citizens who are concerned about young people and homelessness apply to SASH to become hosts – they are assessed, DBS checked, trained and our Host Coordinators support them.
- The young people we work with are often vulnerable. SASH’s Young People’s Co-ordinators support them through their placement. Loneliness, poor mental health and self-esteem are all issues which can affect young people who’ve faced homelessness. Our SASH Active programme connects young people helped by our services through residential trips, valuable life-skills workshops as well as other enriching experiences.
- All young people SASH works with are referred through councils and other local organisations after presenting as homeless.
