Sleepout events to help tackle homelessness
Students and staff at Edinburgh are being encouraged to join a nationwide sleepout to help end homelessness in Scotland.
They are being given an incentive to sign up for Sleep in the Park, which will bring together 12,000 people across four Scottish cities.
The first 2,000 students and staff who sign up for the charity event will have their registration fee paid for.
National event
Sleep in the Park events will take place on Saturday 8 December in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee.
They have been organised by Social Bite, a social enterprise set up in 2012 to support efforts to eradicate homelessness in Scotland.
Last year’s event – which saw 8,000 sleep out in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens – raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to support charities working with homeless people in Scotland.
Scottish superstars
The Edinburgh event will this year feature acoustic performances by Scottish music artists Amy MacDonald, Lulu and KT Tunstall.
Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh will read those attending a bedtime story.
University donation
The University has contributed to a fund providing 2,000 free places for students and staff across the four cities.
Students and staff can take part individually or as part of a team.
To redeem a free ticket, visit the Sleep in the Park sign-up page below, choose your city and enter the referral code which has been emailed to all Edinburgh students and staff.
Once you’ve signed up, remember to connect your fundraising page to the University’s fundraising page by clicking on the ‘Start Fundraising’ button on the University of Edinburgh’s Virgin Money Giving page.
Whilst the tickets are free, students and staff must commit to fundraising a minimum of £50.
Social enterprise
Social Bite was co-founded by Edinburgh alumnus Josh Littlejohn, who graduated in 2009 with a degree with Economics and Politics.
The University awarded Littlejohn an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science in Social Science in 2017 for his work with Social Bite.
All the profits from the social enterprise’s five sandwich shops across Scotland are given to good causes. A quarter of its staff were formerly homeless.
Homelessness is something that we are all aware of and this is a great way to do something positive to tackle it. University students and staff made a huge contribution last year – let’s see if we can do even better this year.