Camden-based marketing agency atom42 are ready to brave the cold as part of youth homelessness charity Centrepoint’s annual Sleep Out event.
On 16th November, Toni, Jake, Tora, Freed, Bea and Chris will swap their beds for a sleeping bag as they rough it on the banks of the Thames for the night, to experience the bitterly cold nights suffered by an increasing number of young homeless people every night.
Figures from a quarterly report on statutory homelessness published by the government for April and June this year show that local authorities in England recognised 14,400 UK households as homeless. Of that number, over 4,000 of those were in London alone.
atom’s Sleep Out organiser and Digital Content Specialist, Toni Skidmore, chose Centrepoint for their latest fundraising efforts, noting that the streets around atom’s office are often lined with people who don’t have a home to go to:
“The staff in our office notice and comment on the amount of people sleeping rough each night. We’ve decided to stop talking about it and to do something to try and help resolve the issue. Now that winter is approaching, it’s increasingly worrying to see people outside overnight.”
No strangers to a challenge or two, atom42 regularly take part in various types of charity events- recently, the atom team took part in Trailwalker for Oxfam, where they walked an impressive 100KM continuously over 27 hours. They also took part in a charity bike ride for Magic Moments, which involved a 70 mile ride from London to Colchester.
“We’ve always been up for a challenge, and are forever looking for the next difficult thing to throw ourselves into. It will be tough, but we’re ready to tackle it, in the hope that us sleeping rough for one night can make a difference to people who live that reality every day” Toni said.
London-based charity Centrepoint give aid to over 9,000 young people across the country annually, helping them not only find homes, but jobs and security after they have left their care.
Centrepoint, which counts Prince William as one of it’s patrons, works tirelessly to help destitute young people to get over both the mental and physical effects that homelessness has had on them.
