Stafford College to host Charity Sleep Out

Participants will brave the elements for a challenging 12 hour stint, as they bed down to raise awareness of homelessness whilst also raising much needed funds to help prevent it happening in the first place.

Gwyn Williams, Chair of the Organising Group said: “This is a new event for Rotary in Stafford and our aim is to support young people to make safer life choices by providing resilience-building education sessions to pupils, their parents and teachers.

Mental illness affects people from all walks of life, and we felt that holding a sponsored ‘Sleep Out’ would be a good way of highlighting the issues faced by homeless people. The community-based prevention work delivered by Re-Solv and funded by Stafford Borough Council fits extremely well with this sponsorship event”.

Stephen Ream, Director of Re-Solv said: "We are so grateful for the support from Rotary which allows us to extend our community prevention work in Stafford Borough and reach more young people and their families. Prevention work at an early age is vital to build resilience and improve long-term outcomes."

The money raised from the ‘Sleep Out’ event will support Re-Solv by allowing them to provide additional resources and prevention sessions to local primary schools, enabling young people to make safer life choices.

• £10 raised would pay for resilience-building resources for 10 pupils
• £50 would pay for an information and awareness workshop for parents
• £100 would pay for a prevention session with a class of 30 pupils.

Stafford Rotary Club is very grateful to Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group (NSCG) for their tremendous support, without which this event would not have been possible.

Karen Dobson OBE, Principal and Chief Executive of Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group said: “We are delighted to be supporting the Rotary Club of Stafford and Re-solv by becoming the host venue for the inaugural ‘Stafford Sleep Out’. We hope that the event will bring together people of all ages from across the Borough to highlight the issue of homelessness and raise money to fund community prevention outreach work in local primary schools.”

‘Sleep Out’ participants will be welcomed on to the courtyard at Stafford Colleges’ Victoria Square campus at 6pm on Friday 17 May. They will be provided a cardboard mat on arrival and can bring along more cardboard and plastic sheeting to build a shelter for the night, until the 12-hour event draws to a close at 6am.

Limited places are available so early registration is encouraged – a £10 registration fee, which will be added to donations, will secure a bed space. Participants are encouraged to set a personal target to raise a minimum of £100 in sponsorship, however, it is appreciated that for students this may not be possible, but others may be able to raise more.

Once participants are registered, they will be encouraged to set up a fundraising page with Virgin Money Giving. Donations can be made by clicking here.

More information, registration and off-line sponsorship forms are available at www.staffordrotaryclub.org.uk or from Helen Perren from the Rotary Club of Stafford on telephone number: 07949079174 or email: helen.perren@btconnect.com