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Sleeping rough at the Baltic

The day started off as you would expect. Heavy rain and wind greeted my morning yawn with mocking vengeance, and all of a sudden the thought of volunteering to sleep rough for a night became a grim reality.

It was Friday and the rain had created lakes around the Baltic, my home for the evening. It was all in the name of Byte Night, a national event that gathers the I.T community to raise awareness and money for Action for Children, a charity that speaks and supports for the most vulnerable children in the UK.

This was to be the first official Byte Night in the North East, organised through business software specialists Bond Solutions and Action for Children. Bond Solutions held an unofficial effort last year with 11 people, but quadrupled the numbers this year to more than 40 for the NewcastleGateshead Byte Night.

The water ebbed from the sleeping ground by late afternoon, although with parasols and heating lamps I was quietly confident this wouldn’t be as rough as I had feared. They were to be collapsed and turned off I was told, but all who took part were happy to make it more of an experience then an event, so most made do without any luxury other than a sleeping bag and a survival bag.

“These events are a great way to raise awareness for the services action for children have,” said Clare Penny-Evans, the service coordinator for Support to Talk, one of the 420 Action for Children projects across the UK, “It also raises funds, which is incredibly difficult to do.

“Sometimes you’ll get money to start a project, but you need money to continually come in to keep a project running.”

She added: “Our aim is to listen to what the young people have to say, talk to their parents and try and get them to resolve any conflicts that got them out of their home in the first place.

“One of the main areas problems is family breakdown. The mediation is about listening to both sides and finding out what their perspective is and their views of the conflict. We don’t tell them what to do, they come up with the solutions themselves. If you’re in an argument yourself getting your viewpoint across is all you’re bothered about, you’re not listening to the other side. That’s what the programme does, it lets you listen to that other side.”

Enthusiasm in the early hours

At half three in the morning spirits were still remarkably upbeat, although it’s easy to be enthusiastic when you realise the difference you could be making, along with the lasting effects.

Linda McDonald, fundraiser for Action for Children, said: “I think the main thing is that the atmosphere has been good all night. The fact that they’re enjoying it means hopefully they’ll come back and do it again.

“The whole event across the country has raised £500,000 and that’s a lot of money to us. From our point of view it’s about getting the message out there and the work that we do.

“Everybody here is pretty comfortable in life, and people do forget quite easily that there are people who aren’t that comfortable. Although they’re all enjoying it, by sleeping out I think it’s in the back of their minds just how difficult some people have it.”

Some tough souls, however, thought it could have been more realistic. Stacey Moore of Rise Consultants said: “It’s not really the same as it would be if you were sleeping rough. It’s almost like it’s a girly night out having a laugh really. You get a small percentage of how bad it could be, but you still have your luxuries.

“I think it should be harder next year. And maybe reduce the fees, £500 is a lot of money for an individual to make, and I think they’ll get more people to participate if they reduce it.”

Nevertheless, as difficult as you make the night it will still only be one night. With a third of new homeless cases last year being people under the age of 25, the experience lets you know you can’t begin to imagine the difficulty that would engulf your life if you were to become homeless, never mind still a child.

The relative discomfort does leave you with a feeling of being so incredibly grateful that you don’t know what it is like to sleep rough, and if reveling in luck has the consequence of energising a group of people to do more, than so be it. Once something so positive starts with such surge it is difficult to slow down.

“Biggest and best”

Derek Curtis, the managing director of Bond Solutions, said: “There’s loads more people this year, it’s been really good fun and a good atmosphere.

“We really want the North East to be the biggest and best Byte Night in the country, and in fact on the way over here I had a few ideas on what to do for next year and we aim to at least double the amount of people taking part, which would obviously be fantastic.”

At least 75,000 young people experience homelessness each year in the UK, and with Byte Night continuing into its 12th year nationally the ongoing support is indispensable, and with everyone at the first official NewcastleGateshead Byte Night saying they hope to return next year, it is sure to be eventful.

Jerri Murtagh, Head of Marketing at Bond Solutions, said: “It was a bit of a hard night, but I’m glad I’ve done it. It was cold and I didn’t get to sleep until about half four just through the noise and the wind, and when I did get to sleep I’d always wake up, but I’ll be back along next year.

“There was three months involved in the planning and to get 40 people to give up their Friday night is superb, and we just hope next year is bigger and better and raises even more money.

“We raised more than £15,000 in the North East, and there’s a lot of good that can be done with such a big sum of money, and next year I’m sure we can get even more.”

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .