From golf clubs and university students to mayoral candidates, residents from all over the county of Lincolnshire came together to spread awareness for the annual Sleep Easy.
On March 7, YMCA Lincolnshire’s annual sleep out raised £7,500 for the YMCA’s numerous community projects. Taking place at the Deans Green, outside Lincoln Cathedral, everyone got together to raise money and spread awareness to combat homelessness.
Sleep Easy 2025 is an annual event held by the YMCA on a national scale in the early months of every year to raise awareness and funds for all the many communities projects the YMCA run countywide.
YMCA Lincolnshire provide housing, consultation and support for the homeless with the aim of creating a pathway to ‘thrive’ and lead those who have fallen on hard times back on their feet.
Participants camped out cathedral gardens using cardboard boxes as shelter to protect themselves from the winter chill.
Acting CEO of YMCA Lincolnshire, Chris Kirkwood, said: ‘’The first night at sleep easy is about how you reflect on tonight… we will get to go home and sleep in our bed and have a hot bath. It’s about awareness’’
‘’the reasons for people being homeless are so vast. We have had people fleeing domestic abuse and even more recently people whose business has failed’’.
Shelter England reported that in 2024 there will have been over 354,000 people that were without a home. That is 1 in 160 people across the UK having to find an alternative means of shelter with the figure only going up each year.
In an attempt to remove the old-fashioned way of accommodating the homeless in hostels, the YMCA introduced a system where they help to support them into getting onto their feet again.
Chris said: ‘’What we wanted to do was really change that dynamic and try and take people on a journey, for as many as we can. If they arrive with us at the homeless shelter and they get to spend 8 weeks with us there, we can provide a full risk assessment on them and we can provide health assessments on them’’
‘’then we can perhaps help them to move on to our hostel for a longer period of time, then into some of our more independent accommodation and then, hopefully, into independent living’’.
Ann-Marie Hamson, Community Champion for Tesco Extra is one of the people at sleep easy showing their support for the YMCA as an organisation in Lincoln that provides large donations of food.
Any food that is damaged may leak onto other products making unfit for the shelf however they are still edible and so they are donated to the many food banks and larders across the Lincoln area through Ann-Marie’s work.
Following a statement from Keir Starmer in the PMQs, 450 schools have been given free breakfast clubs. Children will get a free breakfast and 30 minutes of childcare to support parents which will put an extra £400 in parent’s pockets each year.
In response to the Prime Minister’s announcement, Ann-Marie said: ‘’A lot of schools do breakfast club, and they are asking me for donations of cereal because there are a lot more children going to them’’
‘’some of the families were probably not giving their kids breakfast in the first place. A lot of schools have told me that before the breakfast clubs, a lot of the students weren’t having breakfast. So, if the kids weren’t having breakfast in the first place, those parents that need the financial support aren’t saving any money’’.
Sleep easy isn’t just about supporting all the good work that YMCA Lincolnshire provide for the community, it is also about spreading awareness to break down the stigma around homelessness and giving the participants time to reflect on their time taking part in the event.
Chris stated: ‘’We will get to go home and sleep in our bed and have a hot bath. It’s about awareness. The reasons for people being homeless are so vast. We have had people fleeing domestic abuse and even more recently people whose business has failed’’.
Anyone can fall on hard times and according to the YMCA homelessness has gone up by 100% in the last year. Impacting not only people who have fallen on hard times but families as well.
If you would like to support the YMCA’s Sleep Easy 2025 you can donate here.