The weather was certainly not in our favour on Thursday night, with a fair amount of rain, but this did not put off our courageous businesses sleeping out at Harrogate Rugby, as part of the Big Harrogate Sleep Out. The event was organised by Harrogate Spring Water, Harrogate Homeless Project & Just B.

It was a fantastic evening, we were well looked after by Harrogate Rugby Club and entertained with, what is fair to say, quite a challenging quiz, kindly hosted by Your Harrogate Radio.

The Rapid Relief Team UK were there to provide breakfast for all this morning, which was a very welcome treat after a tough night sleeping outdoors.

Richard Cooper, CEO at Harrogate Homeless Project - “We slept out for one night to raise money so that we can support people who sleep rough every night. We were sleeping rough after a meal, a few drinks, a quiz. We could come indoors if the weather became too much and we had toilets available to us. We could afford a pretty good sleeping bag and clean clothes to sleep in and it was certainly still a challenge! Most of our clients are sleeping rough with none of those advantages and with a whole host of other complications. Drug and alcohol addiction, poor mental and physical health, family breakdown and no certainty about how the future will pan out.

That’s where Harrogate Homeless Project steps in. We provide rough sleepers first with a roof over their head taking away the immediate issue. But most importantly, we have a team who puts in place a long-term network of support, including our Springboard Day Centre, to deal with the problems that put the person on the streets in the first place.”
The event total is currently standing at £9110.74, made up of on and offline donations and monies raised during the evening, which is fantastic and a substantial increase from last year. This will be split between HHP and Just 'B', and there is still time to donate if you have not done so already. Please help us reach that £10k target!!!!

You can donate here - https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/.../big-harrogate-sleepout
Thank you to all our businesses for taking part and to our sponsor Harrogate Spring Water, our hosts Harrogate Rugby Club, Your Harrogate for all their help promoting and support during the evening and to the Rapid Relief Team for so generously volunteering their time and providing breakfast for all.

Just ‘B’ is a specialist bereavement support and emotional wellbeing service helping children, young people and adults across the communities of North Yorkshire, as well as offering specialist support regionally and nationally.

Just ‘B’ is part of independent charity North Yorkshire Hospice Care, a family of services which includes Herriot Hospice Homecare and Saint Michael’s Hospice. Together we offer vital hospice care, emotional wellbeing and bereavement support.

We provide emotional wellbeing and bereavement support for children, young people and adults, as well as a range of helplines and specialist services.

To find out more and be part of next year’s event, please get in touch with Nicola at nicola@hhphostel.org