YMCA’s across the country participated in National Sleep Easy week, which ran from the 8th – 18th of March, volunteers, donors and members of the community continue to sleep rough so others don’t have to.
The national campaign has been running since 2010 and has previously seen more than 6,000 people sleep out to raise money and awareness of youth homelessness, and the invaluable services that local YMCAs offer within their communities.
The week was off to a great start on Friday the 8th, with volunteers from YMCA’s in Derby, Thames Gateway, Essex, Ripon, Milton Keynes and Trinity Group all giving up the comfort of their warm beds for the night to sleep rough.
For YMCA Derbyshire, Friday marked their 9th annual sleep easy event, which saw them exceed their original target of £45,000 to fundraise over an incredible £46,000 which will go toward investing in their Changing Lives Programme.
Volunteers from YMCA Exeter spent the night in wet and windy conditions in order to raise awareness, spending the evening aptly listening to testimonies of those who the YMCA Exeter have previously helped whilst homeless, with donations so far resulting in over £13,000 raised in their 8th annual event of the year.
YMCA Dulverton Group held their event on the 29th of March, and staged events throughout the night such as a shelter building competition, to build upon the £2000 they have raised since 2016 when they first started participating in the campaign.
Congratulations to all that participated. As results keep rolling in, we look forward to hearing all the successes of YMCAs who took part in the Sleep Easy campaign.