Norfolk encouraged to 'Stay Up' by local charity
The Benjamin Foundation is urging people to 'Stay Up' instead of 'Sleep Out' for their biggest annual fundraiser.
The charity, which supports children, young people and families going through hard times, across Norfolk and Suffolk have had to cancel their usual fundraiser due to coronavirus.
Once a year the charity usually hosts a 'Sleep Out' event in Norwich to raise awareness and vital funds, but this year the pandemic's forced them to go virtual.
People across the county are being encouraged to 'Stay Up' all night with various activities including talks, music and online quizzes to keep them entertained.
The event is a joint initiative with End Youth Homelessness, which is a collective of like-minded charities across the nation, with people all over the UK expected to take part tonight.
Matt Garrod, who's the Benjamin Foundation's Director of Operations, said: "“For the last 5 years, we’ve asked supporters of The Benjamin Foundation to Sleep Out to help our local work to prevent youth homelessness. In 2019 alone, our flagship fundraising events in Norwich and Ipswich raised over £110,000, a record-breaking amount for our charity, to help our work with local vulnerable young people, giving them safe and stable accommodation and helping them to take their next steps to successful independent lives.”
“2020 is different. Sleep Out in the usual format isn’t possible this year, which has potential to have a huge impact on our charity’s income.
"Therefore, we are pleased to collaborate with End Youth Homelessness to bring STAY:UP to Norfolk and Suffolk and we urge local people and businesses to back the event to continue tohelp local young people.
“STAY:UP is a great way to fundraise in a safe and socially distanced way. We hope that our local communities are ‘Up for the Night’ to help end youth homelessness.”
You can register to 'Stay Up' here until 5pm tonight.