Byte Night raised £1m for young homeless

In a cleverly named campaign the IT and business people of Edinburgh have contributed to the fundraising of over £1m for the young homeless by sleeping out overnight.

Over 1,000 IT and business professionals across the UK took part and over 150 sleepers took part in Scotland Those bedding down in Holyrood Park contributed over £90,000 so far to the growing £1m total.

The Edinburgh event was one of seven sponsored sleep-outs held to raise awareness of the plight of the 100,000 homeless young people in the UK. The money raised will fund services that provide emergency accommodation and emotional and practical support for homeless young people.

Rhona Hutchon, director at Harvey Nash and co-chair on the Edinburgh Byte Night board, said:- “It is enormously inspiring to see so many people sleep out on a cold October night to help make in support of the homeless young people in the area.

“We are really proud to have raised a landmark £1m and plans are already underway to make next year’s event even bigger and better – I would urge businesses from across Scotland to sign up and join us next October. Not only is it a great team-building and networking opportunity, but you are also helping us in the fight against the sad truths of youth homelessness.”

The Edinburgh sleep-out raised funds for several local Action for Children services – including New Horizons, a service in East Lothian which provides supported accommodation for homeless young people who find themselves homeless. Young people are able to access emotional support as well as assistance with lifeskills such as cooking, budgeting and finding work; with the aim of helping them to prepare for running their own home.

Byte Night is the technology and wider business community’s annual sleep-out in support of Action for Children. Each year, colleagues from hundreds of companies spend a night exposed to the elements in a bid to raise sponsorship and awareness of the charity’s work to combat youth homelessness and associated issues.

If you missed the chance to sleep out, there is still time to support Action for Children’s work. To donate, just text the word ‘BYTE13£5’ to 70070 or visit www.actionforchildren.org.uk.

The charity is already recruiting sleepers for next year’s event on Friday 3rdOctober 2014. To register or find out more, please visit www.bytenight.org.uk or email bytenight@actionforchildren.org.uk