Liz Murphy

Thanks to your support, my sleep out could provide:

4

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

or

5

nutritious meals in the Focus Ireland Coffee Shop

or

6

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.

This October 11, I won’t be heading home after school. Instead, I’ll be swapping my warm bed for a sleeping bag – all to raise awareness and funds for Focus Ireland, the national organisation tackling homelessness in Ireland.

Did you know that over 4,000 children in our country don’t have a permanent home? That’s a staggering number. Every child deserves to feel safe and secure, and a home is at the heart of that. But for too many children, this is missing.

Being a teenager comes with its own stresses – schoolwork, exams, friendships, part-time jobs, even just figuring out who you are. I can’t imagine adding homelessness on top of it all. How can you focus on exams when you’re worried about where you’ll sleep next?

That’s why I think it is important to take part in my School Sleep Out as part of Focus Ireland’s Shine A Light, proudly supported by Bord Gáis Energy. 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. Please show your support by donating to my fundraising page: every contribution, big or small, gets us closer to creating a future where everyone has a safe place to call home.