This year’s sleep-out is to support Focus Ireland, Peter McVerry and HomeAgain.
The Belvedere College Annual Sleep-Out will take place through 22 to 24 December outside Bank of Ireland, College Green and the GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin.
SleepOut17 will see over 100 students, teachers, past pupils and parents sleeping out in Dublin’s inner city as part of this annual event.
Donations can be made on the street during the event and also online at any time on SleepOut17’s official website.
Last year, SleepOut16 raised a total of €225,021.61 for Focus Ireland, Peter McVerry Trust and HomeAgain, while its hashtag trended on Twitter for the duration of the event.
Included in the event was the SleepOutSelfie campaign, which encouraged passers-by and celebrities to post selfies of themselves and others while holding a #SleepOut16 sign. In total, 2,000 selfies were posted last year to all forms of social media and a similar campaign is taking place for SleepOut17 having been launched by Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.
Commenting on this year’s event, student and participant Conrad Oppermann wrote,
“There are more than 8,400 people ‘officially homeless’ in Ireland. This figure includes adults and children with their families, the number of families becoming homeless has increased by over 31% since last year and one in three of those in emergency accommodation is under the age of 16. However, it does not include the ‘hidden homeless’ who are living in squats or ‘sofa surfing’ with friends or people who are living in domestic violence refuges.
“The aim of the 3 charities supported by SleepOut17 is to combat this issue that is becoming ever more prevalent in today’s society.”
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