Night to remember helps shed light on chilling curse of homelessness
Sleeping in a city square was a one-off for Rhona Hutchon ,but for many young people it’s routine – and she wants to change that
N Friday October 7, I and hundreds of others spent the night under the stars in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, raising money to support the youth homelessness services run by Action for Children Scotland.
But while we were only sleeping out for the one night, knowing we would return home in a matter of hours to a warm bed, the same cannot be said for the near 10,000 people under the age of 24 that are homeless. Of that figure, a staggering 1,493 were aged just 16 or 17.
It is for their future that we spent the night sleeping out. It is because we want to see these young people, and every young person in Scotland, have a safe and loving place to call home. We have heard too many stories about young people sofa surfing, spending nights in B&BS or sleeping on the streets.
And that is the reason why there is Byte Night Scotland, an annual sleep out now in its tenth year, which has already raised more than £650,000. In my role as co-chair of the Byte Night board, I have been lucky enough to see first-hand the difference that the money raised makes. One of the services that benefits as a result of Byte Night Scotland is New Horizons in East Lothian. It supports young people from Edinburgh and across the Lothians that have, often through no fault of their own, found themselves without a roof over their head.
The money raised at Byte Night provides accommodation for children and young people who have nowhere else to go, food parcels and electricity cards for those who have been forced to live alone at an early age, and mediation to help deal with problems and keep families together.
Every year, some of the young people who are supported by Action for Children services attend Byte Night and share their stories. And that is how I met Tom. Tom is a young person who found himself, in his early years, being adopted by a family in the north of England. Various issues, outwith his control, saw him return to Scotland to a family that he was now remote from. This resulted in him finding himself down on his luck and he sought the support from New Horizons to get his life back on track.
They supported this charming young man and when he spoke out at our Byte Night launch event we were all blown away, and close to tears, having heard about his journey. It was clear that one thing that Tom needed was to be given a chance.
In my role at Harvey Nash, I knew I had contacts I could speak to but I also knew that I could do something myself.
For the past few months now, Tom has been a part of our team in Edinburgh. He’s settled in well and is working hard and has already shown the sort of qualities that make it clear we were right to get him to join us.
This year in Edinburgh, representatives from tech start-ups like Zone Fox through to more established companies like Fanduel spent the evening of Friday 7 October under the stars. On the night, we were joined by over 1,400 people at ten simultaneous events taking place across the length and breadth of the UK.
A big thanks to all the companies including; Skyscanner, Fanduel, Cirrus Logic, RBS, IBM, Harvey Nash, LOGICNOW, Computacenter, Standard Life, EMC, Bridgeall, Craneware, Version 1, 2i Testing, Zone Fox, Business & Decision and all the others; who spent the night out at Byte Night
Scotland. One night really can make a difference.
If you want to play your part but weren’t able to join us on the night, you can still donate by texting ‘ACTION’ to 70080 to donate £5 now. And if you are looking for a different way to fundraise in 2017, I’d encourage everyone to give some thought to joining us next year for Byte Night 2017. To find out more, please visit bytenight.org.uk Rhona Hutchon co-chairs Byte Night Scotland and is director of recruitment firm Harvey Nash Scotland.