Marking this year’s World Homeless Day and emerging from online discussions between people working to respond to homelessness from various parts of the world, English Premier League club Aston Villa will be holding its Big Villa Sleepout – which, this year, will be held virtually. And they are encouraging fans to get involved and take up the challenge from home by sleeping out in their gardens or even camping out on the living room floor, in aid of supporting the homeless community of Birmingham.In return they will be providing an evening of content on their social channels as fans will be encouraged to share selfies on social media throughout the night, using the hashtag #BigVillaSleepout.Fans will also be able to donate through an online donation link and proceeds from the fundraising event will help fund their Villa Kitchen, which provides hot meals to the homeless community in Birmingham.

 

The Villa Kitchen provides local organisations including Outreach Angels, Helping Hands and the Birmingham Support Group with pre-packaged meals, which are prepared by a team of staff volunteers, and the organisations distribute these across the city.

 

They will be running their annual Big Villa Sleep Out virtually on Aston Villa social channels, with proceeds going towards funding the Kitchen.

 

“Everyone should have a safe, secure and stable home”, the club says. “However we have seen far too often how easy it is for someone to fall into the cycle of homelessness.

 

“The current coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on all our lives, but the homeless community are continually facing challenges”.

 

World Homeless Day, which aims to draw attention to the struggles the homeless community face and inspires ways in which people can look to end homelessness.

The inaugural World Homeless Day was marked on 10 of October 2010 and since its founding, it has been observed on every continent except Antarctica, in several dozen countries.

Use of the idea of it is open for all to use... anywhere in the world.


The Big Villa Sleep Out will be returning on Saturday November 14.