Eibhleann Kennedy-Rynne

Thanks to your support, my sleep out could provide:

9

hours of one-on-one support for a child with a dedicated Child Support Worker

or

11

nutritious meals in the Focus Ireland Coffee Shop

or

15

hours access to Focus Ireland’s education service PETE (Preparation for Education, Training & Employment)

Mission Statement

Focus Ireland are driven by the fundamental belief that homelessness is wrong. They work with people who need support to avoid becoming homeless and who need help to end their experience of homelessness and move into a safe and secure home. From the very beginning, their work has been rooted in deep listening to people, learning about the problems and risks they face and pointing to where the solutions lie.

I’m sleeping out against homelessness.

On October 11, something a little different is happening for the Transition Years at our school. At 8pm on Friday evening, our school will be swapping our warm beds for sleeping bags for our School Sleep Out as part of Focus Ireland’s Shine A Light, proudly supported by Bord Gáis Energy.

It might sound a little crazy, but the reality of homelessness is even more so.

Over 4,000 children and over 10,000 adults alone, without a home every night on the cold, dangerous streets of Ireland.

Think about it: over 4,000 children in our country don't have a safe place to sleep to call home. They can’t relax and be carefree like other kids after a long day at school. Instead, they are faced with stress, fear and uncertainty that no child should ever have to deal with.

That’s why I think it is important for our school to take part in the sleep out – it’s a chance to experience, in a small way, the challenges faced by young people experiencing homelessness.

Childhood should be about dreams and hanging out with your friends – not wondering where you lay your head at night.

So all I’m asking is please support our school fundraiser by donating to our fundraising page as well as sharing our page on social media: every contribution, big or small, gets us one step closer to creating a future where everyone has a safe place to call home.