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The voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector

Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

TFN is published by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6BB. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registration number SC003558.

Sleep in the Park could be extended

This news post is about 6 years old
 

The charity sleepout could be widened to include other Scottish cities - having raised £4 million in 2017

A charity event which helped raise millions of pounds for the fight against homelessness could be rolled out across the country.

More than £4 million was raised last month at Sleep in the Park, which saw 8,000 people take part in a charity sleepout in Edinburgh.

And organisers Social Bite have said that similar events could be held across Scotland this year.

Planning for a follow-up event to the initial Sleep in the Park is at an early stage, but could see simultaneous events held in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee this winter.

Organiser Josh Littlejohn told The Scotsman: “Our main objective this year is to invest the funds we have raised, primarily in trying to get 500 people off the streets and into permanent housing.

“We’re definitely exploring how to build on that momentum and push things forward to make significant funding available by potentially evolving the event. Everything is still at the planning stages at the moment.

“Last year’s event completely exceeded my expectations. It broke a fundraising target that most people probably would not have thought was possible. There was interest from across Scotland – we had people travelling from all corners of the country to take part.”

Participants at the first event were entertained by stars such as Liam Gallagher, Sir Bob Geldof, John Cleese and Deacon Blue, and braved sub-zero temperatures to help raise funds to fight homelessness.