Jenny Agutter?
Never mind Logan's Run, star of Railway Children (twice) and Walkabout - oooh, I feel the need for a cold shower coming on.
El Reg works with Byte Night to put techies out on the streets
The Register is partnering with Byte Night, the annual tech-heavy sleepout fundraiser for Action for Children, the UK charity which has been caring and sticking up for vulnerable young people for 150 years. So, why don’t you sign up now if you want to do something for vulnerable young people, think you can rough it with the …
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Friday 22nd June 2018 10:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
Really?
>>One night can be uncomfortable, particularly if it’s cold and wet<<
That's why these PR events happen in high summer - nice warm nights in a fresh sleeping bag, almost a festival event.
Do this in mid January when you can show them turning blue under a old blanket with paper stuffed everywhere and see how many turn up to show solidarity.
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Friday 22nd June 2018 11:26 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Really?
I'm fully on board with the purpose of the event - Point out we have a lot of people needing immediate help in this country.
My comment about January would get things moving if the P.T.B had to endure it for a couple of days with limited food until the cold really starts to suck the life out of you.
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Saturday 23rd June 2018 22:51 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Really?
"Do this in mid January when you can show them turning blue under a old blanket with paper stuffed everywhere and see how many turn up to show solidarity."
It all seems to depend on whether the twitterverse decides it's patronising or hypocritical or something.
If you're a posh, expensive, fee paying school and you have an "austerity lunch" every term, the food cost savings going to charity, then it's a poor show and must be criticised.
I do find this type of event a little uncomfortable. There are many ways to raise money and awareness for the homeless without pretending to be one for one single night with a bunch of mates and like minded people turning it into a night of fun, probably with plenty to eat and drink.
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Friday 22nd June 2018 11:05 GMT Anonymous Coward
A worthwhile cause to be true and a cautionary tale of how it can happen to anyone, even your kids.
I left home at 16, I was a bit of a drug addict, my parents weren't aware of this as I kept it hidden, sneaking out at night then back in the early morning. I started travelling round the country getting work here and there, finding bedsits and flats, inevitably there comes a point where you go somewhere and you can't find a place to stay so I spent a good few months on the streets and in homeless hostels (Lyndley house, Taunton was a fun one, not). As you aren't thinking straight (because drugs) you don't plan ahead you just jump the train and go. I've slept in beach huts, abandoned hotels/houses and on the street. The one piece of advice for that is cardboard, you make that mistake only once, sleep on paving or concrete and you will wake up feeling as though you are in the arctic. I turned my life around by the age of 19 but others aren't so lucky. You could argue mine was out of choice and it was to a degree but it can and does happen to anyone.
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Wednesday 27th June 2018 14:53 GMT leftwing47
Thanks for sharing your story and this is exactly the kind of situation Action for Children (through Byte Night funding) tries to tackle. When you see scary stats like "Half of all adults who are homeless first become so before the age of 21", the importance of intervening before situations reach critical point should become obvious.
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Friday 22nd June 2018 16:19 GMT Alistair
For the leftpondians:
https://sleepout.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.home
For those of us around the T dot:
https://covenanthousetoronto.akaraisin.com/Common/Event/Home.aspx?seid=16861&mid=8
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018
(Yup, November folks. In Canada.)
If you sleep out, for the T dot version, I may see you there, still working on a team.
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Sunday 24th June 2018 10:20 GMT David Roberts
Hot food and a cash bar?
Living it real.
Hardcore would be to surrender all your money and cards then agree to be shipped to an unknown destination for a week to survive on whatever the local community provides.
Note that I didn't say surrender your mobile phone (which would allow you to contact your support crew if you wimped out). This only because the few rough sleepers we have locally (rough sleepers by choice because there is good local community support) all seem to have mobile phones. I still haven't really got to grips with this. Presumably some of the money they are given goes on call time before they spend the rest on their main priority.
Foe local information you could do worse than chat to the Salvation Army who do sterling work which is often unrecognised.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
