Business community give backing to St Basils SleepOut

LEADING members of Birmingham’s business community are set for a night-out with a difference by sleeping rough for the night to highlight the problems facing the city’s homeless.

On the first Friday in December every year, the St Basils charity hosts one of the UK’s largest and oldest SleepOut events. This charity fundraiser sees hundreds of people volunteering to sleep through the night in a cardboard box, in a car park.

Last year, the evening raised more than £35,000 in sponsorship to help the charity continue its work preventing youth homelessness and helping young people at risk of homelessness in Birmingham and North Worcestershire.

More than 200 people have already signed up to this year’s event, to be held on Friday December 2 in Digbeth.

Those volunteering to take part include: Nick Venning, of PwC, Quentin Poole, from Wragge & Co, Jas Sansi, of Jas Sansi Photography, Andeep Mangel, from Thaper & Co and Peter Rees-Steers, chair of Birmingham Forward, as well as representatives from Genting Casinos, Deloitte, Lloyds TSB, Gateley UK, Cobbetts, Rewired PR, Clarke Willmott and Hotel Indigo at The Cube.

Two of the main sponsors of the Big SleepOut are Jaffabox and Harvey Nichols. Jaffabox has supported this event since 2005 and has donated more than 30 tonnes of cardboard during that time.

Harvey Nichols has been a keen supporter of the event since 2007 and has provided thousands of bacon sandwiches and hot drinks over the last four years.

This year Kevin Breese, the store’s general manager, will also be taking part in the challenge itself.

“The Big SleepOut has become a very important date on the city’s fundraising calendar, and I have been delighted to see how many businesses are now backing such a worthy event,” he said.

“It would be fantastic to see even more teams join in this year. Yes, it’s cold and uncomfortable, but it really is a fun way to help raise awareness of homelessness in our city – and if I can do it, anyone can!”

Mark Amyes, of Jaffabox, added: “The work of St Basils is vital to this region and Jaffabox is only too happy to help with this challenging event. This is for a local charity doing great work which actually benefits all of us.”

Those interested in taking part in the event can register for free by visiting www.stbasils.org.uk/sleepout