Local businesses will come together at the Redlands Corporate Sleepout to support the homeless community.
Various local businesses will be sleeping without a shelter at the Redland Bay Business Park tonight from 6pm to 8am to raise awareness for homelessness in the community.
After visiting Ipswich-based charity Beddown, Redlands LNP candidate Rebecca Young said it got her thinking about the initiatives that could be done in the Redlands to support homelessness.
“I started researching and found the Cleveland charity Backpack Bed and I thought instead of reinventing the wheel, we should be doing things to support these already existing charities,” she said.
“Having a safe space to sleep is a basic human right and it is something we all take for granted.”
Night Ninjas President Mitchell O’Connor and CAGE Youth Foundation founder Linda Grieve will speak at the event.
Ms Young said both organisations would be catering the event to show business owners what they do for our community and ways to support them.
PFS Global, TPK Bathrooms, Sirromet Wines, Victoria Point Sharks Sporting Club and Embroidery ETC are committed to the event with hopes for more to join them.
“The premise of the night is to provide a homeless experience,” Ms Young said.
“We will have cardboard and told them to bring their sleeping bag, with pillows being optional.”
Ms Young said her mission from the event was to raise awareness for the charities and the work they do and to acknowledge the fact that homelessness was a local problem.
“I believe that having our charities connected to our government and businesses will go a long way to putting a dent in homelessness in the city,” she said.
