Littlejohn hopes to harness Christmas spirit with talk

● Co-founder of Social Bite to give Dundee lecture

0 Josh Littlejohn co-founded Social Bite and has expanded the Sleep In The Park fundraising event to cover four cities this December One of Scotland’s leading philanthropists hopes to harness the Christmas spirit to mobilise Dundonians in the fight against homelessness.

Josh Littlejohn will highlight the local impact that supporting national campaigns can have in eliminating rough sleeping at this year’s Dundee Christmas Lecture, a partnership event between the University of Dundee and Dundee City Council.

The co-founder of the notfor-profit café chain Social Bite has helped to raise more than £7 million as part of his mission to eradicate the issue in Scotland, and will be hosting Together We Can End Homelessness, at the university’s Dalhousie Building at 6pm on Saturday 1 December.

He will use his appearance to highlight the plight of people living on the streets ahead of the city’s first Sleep in the Park event a week later, and is calling on people from across the local area to get involved.

“Nobody in Scotland should have to go to sleep at night without a roof over their head,” he said. “At this time of year people will think nothing of heading into Dundee city centre to spend hun- dreds of pounds on Christmas presents, but if we each spared just a few pounds we could help to transform the lives of others well beyond Christmas Day.

“The motto of the University of Dundee is ‘Transforming Lives’ and that is exactly what Sleep in the Park is about. That’s why appearing at this year’s Dundee Christmas Lecture is the perfect place to highlight how we can all help to end homelessness.”

Scottish Government figures published earlier this year revealed the number of people applying for homeless status had risen for the first time in nine years, reaching almost 35,000. It is a process that many Social Bite employ- ees have experienced, with one in four having struggled withhomelessnessinthepast.

Social Bite’s profile has been enhanced considerably by the power of celebrity, with Hollywood stars George Clooney and Leonardo Dicaprio among those to have visited its outlets in recent years, while its Sleep in the Park event is being expanded to four cities this winter – Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow.

With thousands expected to bunk down in the city’s Slessor Gardens, Mr Littlejohn said he hoped to use his Dundee Christmas Lecture appearance to highlight how funds raised from the event could change the lives of Scotland’s homeless.