The Big Sleepout
The Lifewise Big Sleepout on 14 October, 65 business and community leaders swapped their creature comforts for cold concrete and ‘slept rough’ for one night – all to help LIFEWISE tackle homelessness.
After Team 9 (Dante, Guillym, Mark and Jeshua) in the yMedia Challenge produced the fundraising platform for the Big Sleepout (www.bigsleepout.org.nz), yMedia’s Jade Tang and Eddy Helm were inspired to take up the challenge.
During the long, but fortunately not too cold, evening, Lifewise painted the picture of homelessness in full; with dinner in the soup kitchen, stories from those who had been homeless themselves, a walk up to see the night shelter, and then after a cup of tea, the group settled in for a night on their cardboard bedding laid out on the concrete floor in an inner-city carpark.
The evening was humbling for all those involved, and truly highlighted that homelessness is everyone’s problem, and one which we need to solve together.
There is no government funding or national strategy to tackle this major social issue. LIFEWISE is taking action and working with other agencies to end street homelessness in Auckland by 2020.
It’s not just the people you see sleeping rough in alleyways or public parks. It’s estimated that thousands of Kiwis are struggling to find permanent housing. They’re the hidden homeless people forced to sleep on friends’ couches or floors, in carports or backyards, desperately seeking their own homes.
Homelessness is characterised by myths and misunderstanding. That makes fundraising for homeless support services a constant challenge.
Lifewise general manager John McCarthy said that the response exceeded expectations.
“With more than 60 business and community leaders as well as politicians sleeping on cardboard in a central city carpark, we were able to raise more than $95,000 towards a new venture, the Lifewise Hub”.
At the new LIFEWISE Hub, client support workers will support homeless people and help them move from the street or temporary housing into their own homes within the community.
