People tend to equate the homeless with rough sleeping but that is only one element
● The Edinburgh-headquartered trust supports thousands of people each year
In a few weeks time, on what is likely to prove a typically chilly Scottish winter’s night, thousands of people will grab their sleeping bags and head off to Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens for what is being billed as the world’s largest sleepout.
Organisers of the Sleep in the Park event on 9 December are hoping for as many as 9,000 participants, with a host of celebrities, sports personalities and figures from across Scotland’s political and business communities committed to do their bit, alongside members of the public.
The event, which is being organised by Josh Littlejohn, co-founder of the Social Bite sandwich chain, has the potential be a Live Aid for Scottish homelessness.
It’s a bold initiative and one that is poised to raise public awareness of one of society’s greatest challenges, in addition, of course, to valuable funding. Homelessness, and the mission to help tackle its causes and provide support for its victims, is an everyday reality for Iain Gordon, the chief executive of Bethany Christian Trust.
For more than three decades the Edinburgh-headquartered charity has been working to reduce the suffering and meet the long-term needs of homeless and vulnerable people in Scotland.
Thanks to the efforts of its leadership team, staff and thousands of volunteers, the trust has been able to support some 7,000 individuals every year.
Managing the day-to-day running of an organisation that must grapple with a range of societal issues – unemployment, drug addiction, social isolation, to name but three – at the same time as holding the purse strings to a multi-million-pound budget is, Gordon freely admits, a challenge.
“People tend to equate the homeless with rough sleeping but that is really only one element,” he stresses. “There are people who might be sofa surfing or kipping on a friend’s floor, in temporary bed and