Homelessness Charity plan Sleep-over to cover losses from cuts
- 14 Sep
Due to funding cuts, SASH, a homelessness charity, is organising a 'sleep-over' to raise money to fund their services.
Safe and Sound Homes (SASH) has helped more than 100 people aged between 16 and 24, and provided them with 353 bed-nights in North Yorkshire. Sarah Ware, a leading volunteer with the charity, said that the demand for help was on the rise, and due to cuts in funding from statutory organisations and authorities, SASH had a funding gap.
Now, SASH is organising a sleep-over in Pickering next March, run by the Girl Guides, Scouts, Pickering Youth Council and churches. Last year, similar sleep-overs in Kirkbymoorside and York raised £8,500 and now SASH needs to raise £21,000 to fund its operations in York and North Yorkshire. Those taking part can look forward to a bacon-butty breakfast at Pickering Memorial Hall which the trustees are making available to the charity.
SASH provides accommodation and support from a single night up to two weeks through its nightstop scheme.
Ware said:Our aim is to give these young people a bed, a meal and shower facilities and to help them work out a permanent solution to their problems. Our services are seeing a rise in demand. Last year there was a record number of people needing help and it has risen each month.
It is not just young people sleeping rough in the streets we are helping, but a number who are 16 or 17 who are what we call ‘sofa-surfers’ – those without somewhere permanent to sleep as a result of such things as family breakdowns or who may have been subject to abuse, making it inappropriate for them to go home. We do not run a shelter or hostel – we rely on a network of local volunteers who accommodate young people in their own homes,” she said. “Nightstop provides a safe home environment, food, a bed for the night and someone to talk to. It means vulnerable young people are not left isolated or at risk.
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