Every year, Uxbridge Leisure Centre hosts a unique event, The Big SleepOut, aimed at raising awareness for the growing problem of homelessness in the UK. Participants are not given a bed, a roof, not even a mere sleeping bag to save them from the elements- everyone has to brave the bitter winter coldness to truly understand what it’s like to live on the streets in the dead of winter.
In 2016, the estimated number of homeless people living on the streets of the UK was 250,000 people. That’s 10 times the population of the Caribbean Netherlands. However, now, the number of homeless people is estimated to be much higher due to increasing property prices and the explosion of unemployment. More and more people every day are having to find refuge on a street, frozen, petrified of what the night will bring. It’s truly saddening to imagine members of our community suffering silently on the streets and having nowhere to turn to.
This is why Trinity are such an amazing organisation. Their event attracts hundreds of people every year who are willing to face the tough conditions of sleeping rough. In 2017, Trinity invited guest speakers to The Big SleepOut, whom they had helped escape the grip of homelessness and helped them to go on to drastically improve their lives.
The Big SleepOut is such a worthwhile event to partake in. You undertake a challenging night learning how to sleep rough, but you also learn to empathise with those who are not as fortunate as ourselves, which is the first step in tackling the ever-growing problem of homelessness.
