| Here are some ideas that you might want to think about to help you set up your own Satellite SleepOut in aid of St Basils. | .jpg) |
Venue
This is the most important element of the event.
It must be big enough to sleep the amount of people that are attending. Ideally it should have a covered area or hall where the sleepers can go if the weather is particularly bad.
It must have toilet access thought the night.
Ideally it will have facilities where you can prepare hot food and drinks.
Ideally it will have one entrance, which makes securing the site easier and checking attendees arrival.
Make sure you have full permission from the owners of the venue to do this.
We would advise you to conduct a risk assessment of your event.
Staffing/Marshals
If you are providing food and drink make sure someone is in charge of the canteen and canteen volunteers. Make sure you observe proper health & safety procedures regarding food preparation and food handling.
Volunteers to take charge of cardboard and sleeping materials.
Someone in charge of clearing up in the morning after the event.
Ideally you want some volunteers to take on the responsibility of security on site all night to support the participants. You need to ensure that everyone participating is safe, so think about recruiting volunteers who will be vigilant through out the night making sure that no trouble occurs, or better still ask a local security firm if they will donate a couple of their staff to the event.
Have an attendees list that is ticked off at the entrance.
Inform the local police that you are holding this event and invite them along.
Inform local residents that you are holding this event and be mindful of noise disturbance from this event to your local environment.
Food & Drink
Estimate how may people will be attending, including marshal volunteers and then buy or ask for donation for your food and drink.
The Big SleepOut provides bacon sandwiches, veggie burgers, tomato soup, tea and coffee. The Big SleepOut, charges but you may wish to have this on offer for free. Breakfast is toast, tea and coffee and is given free as a reward to completing the challenge.
Sleeping Material
You could provide your sleepers with a large cardboard box and a large plastic bag each, or get your participants to bring their own material with them.
Encourage them to bring their own material as well, like more cardboard, large tarpaulin sheets, blankets, sleeping bags, lots of warm layers of clothing, water proof clothing. Don’t forget, you are asking people to sleep outside in winter. That’s the challenge!
Make sure everyone is aware that if the event is happening outside they must prepare for it by attending in the appropriate clothing and sleeping equipment, like sleeping bag, roll mat, additional cardboard, tarpaulin, rolls of tape.
You also need to somewhere to put the rubbish in the morning.
Marketing
Advertise to people who are local to the venue and who you think might like to attend. Take photos of the event; we will put them on our St Basils website. Make sure the details of the event are clearly stated on your marketing material.
Sponsorship: This event is designed to raise money for St Basils. We can supply you will all the supporting material you need to make this event a success and raise the maximum amount for our charity; the appropriate wording for this is 'The name of your event' in Aid of St Basils.
For more information please contact us at fundraising@stbasils.org.uk or phone 0121 772 9614.
