On Thursday night 22 June, four members of the Zetta Group Management Team, will fight homelessness, joining around 100 other Western Australian business, government, and community leaders for the 2017 Vinnies CEO Sleepout.
Spending a night outside at the WACA with only a piece of cardboard for shelter, the aim of the event is for participants to experience first-hand just a fragment of what it is like to be homeless, meanwhile raising funds for Vinnies homeless services.
The Zetta team is striving to raise a minimum of $5,000 to help Vinnies provide immediate relief to people in crisis and to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness.
St Vincent de Paul Society WA Acting CEO Adele Stewart said the Vinnies CEO Sleepout is a great opportunity for business, community and government leaders to come together and sleep out for one night so that others don’t have to for life.
“On any given night more than 105,000 Australians have no place to call home.”
Approximately 27 percent of Australia’s homeless are children, and 23 percent are faced with this situation due to domestic and family violence.
“Behind each statistic is the story of a fellow Australian — someone just like you and me — who has experienced the extreme isolation and desperation of homelessness,” Ms Stewart said.
In 2015/16 Vinnies assisted more than 48,700 people through its specialist services and programs. With only one of our six homeless services receiving Government funding, support from leaders like you is vital in ensuring we can continue to provide help to individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
Join us in the fight against homelessness!
To donate please visit the link here.
GET INVOLVED!
Homelessness Fact Sheet WA
- There are officially more than 105,000 Australians experiencing homelessness every night across Australia (1 in every 200).
- More than 17,000 Australian children under the age of 12 have no home, representing 17% of the overall homeless population.
- The most common reasons people give for becoming homeless relate to interpersonal conflict including domestic and family violence and relationship breakdown.
- 39% of Australians experiencing homelessness are living in severely crowded dwellings; 17% are staying temporarily with family and friends; 18% are living in boarding houses and other temporary accommodation; 6% are sleeping rough on the streets, and just 20% find a bed in the homeless service system.
- A common misconception is that the homeless are mainly middle-aged or older men. In fact, most homeless people are under 35 (60%). 44% are women.
- People experiencing homelessness are more likely to suffer from severe mental disorders than the rest of the population. The experience of homelessness can trigger and exacerbate mental illness.
- The experience of homelessness brings with it a heightened vulnerability to violence.
- A lack of affordable housing is a key contributor to homelessness. There are simply not enough accommodation options for people experiencing disadvantage and every day Vinnies visits families who face this reality, unable to survive in the private rental market.
- Unemployment, family breakdown and drug and alcohol abuse are additional factors that lead to homelessness.
On the best available data, just under 10,000 Western Australians are homeless every night.
For more information about upcoming events and fundraising activities, please see the media contact below.
Elizabeth Bingham
PR Contact
(08)6323 6468 / elizabeth.bingham@zettagroup.com.au
