Satellite sleepouts

About SleepOuts/ SleepIns

Every year St Basils organises the BIG SleepOut which takes place late November/ early December time when around 300 supporters bed down in a Car Park in Birmingham for the night to raise funds in sponsorship for St Basils. Participants build their dwelling for the night out of cardboard provided. As this event is so busy and takes place in the middle of winter it is not always appropriate for teenagers and children to join in, but you can still help St Basils and raise awareness of youth homelessness by organising your own!

About Us

St Basils helps young people aged 16-25 across the West Midlands who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, housing around 1000 and advising or supporting around 3000 more per year to ensure they avoid homelessness or repeat homelessness.

Why help St Basils

• Do something fun and different
• Help local young homeless people
• Raise awareness of homelessness
• Raise awareness of help available to young people in your community

We'll support you to organise your own!

We would love your group to think about holding your own Satellite SleepOut or SleepIn event in aid of St Basils. They are great fun for all who take part and are not that hard to arrange. We’ve got a poster you can download to help you get started. Put your details in the box, stick it up on your reception, school or church hall notice board and see who’s interested.

For advice on how to organise your own call us on:

Tel: 0121 772 9614

Recent SleepOut/SleepIn events

The following groups have all organised their own satellite SleepOuts/Ins:

• 8^th Birmingham Boys Brigade
• Holy Trinity Church (Lickeys)
• St Laurence Church (Alvechurch)
• Ladywood & Handsworth NHS Centre
• SNL Maypole Methodist Church
• 6^th Shirley Scouts Group
• Bourneville Village Trust
• Anthony Collins Solicitors
• Birmingham Metropolitan College
• Fort Dunlop
• Sandwell College
• Natwest Bank

South Birmingham College students and staff slept out to raise money and awareness of homelessness in aid of St Basils. Despite there being frost on the ground, staff and 23 students built their ‘homes’ for the night out of cardboard boxes and bedded down in sleeping bags. St Basils came along to talk about the work they do to help prevent young people from becoming homeless in the region. Although the night had a very serious reason, staff and students were able to enjoy themselves and have fun. A soup kitchen was opened and members of the college’s senior management team served up hot drinks, jacket potatoes and soup to ward off the cold. Live music from students provided entertainment around the camp fire, as did karaoke later in the night. There were competitions for the most creative cardboard houses and prizes were given out. Staff and students have been collecting sponsorship money for their efforts, which will be donated to St Basils.”

Jacqui Qualie, South Birmingham College Satellite SleepOut

“We did our SleepIn on the 10th of December 2011 in some of the classrooms at our school. There were 28 students (ranging in age from 13 to 18) and 7 teachers taking part and we stayed in school from 9:00 pm on Saturday to 7:00am on the Sunday morning. We played board games and did a quiz and at midnight we slept on the floor (me just on cardboard) experiencing, in our own small way, a little of the hardships faced by homeless people and through our sponsorships we managed to raise in excess of £600 for St Basils.”

Mark Wright, Bishop Vesey School Satellite SleepIn