Vinnies’ 2020 CEO Sleepout is a $100,688 success despite COVID-19

Despite COVID-19 threatening to curtail the success of St. Vincent de Paul Society’s 2020 CEO Sleep-out, the event was a huge success, with 50 CEOs braving a chilli night in Tasmania to raise $100,688 so far.

St. Vincent de Paul Society’s CEO, Lara Alexander, said the Society is grateful to the CEOs, community leaders, their 852 supporters, and the hundreds of generous Tasmanians who donated their time and money to the 2020 CEO Sleep-out in Tasmania.

“The 2020 CEO Sleep-out has raised $100,688 so far, but we still have pledges and late donations to collect, so we are confident of achieving well over the current total to assist the homeless. Given the impact of COVID-19 on everyone, our original goal was $48,000. We have more than doubled our target,” Mrs Alexander said.

“On behalf of the Society, I’d like to thank all 50 participants, their supporters, and everyone who donated to the 2020 CEO Sleepout. You are all fantastic people and your generosity is absolutely amazing. Our top fundraising CEO for 2020 is RACT’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mark Mugnaioni, who raised over $13,000. This donation will pay for 42 individual support programmes, 110 beds, and 442 nutritious meals,” she added.

Mr Mugnaioni said: “for many of us, a lack of access to somewhere safe and secure to sleep is never something we have to think about.  However, for more than 1,600 of our fellow Tasmanians this is a daily challenge, which often compounds a variety of other difficulties, which life has thrown up. Even worse, nearly four-in-ten of these 1,600 people are under the age of 25.”

Mrs Alexander said that: “every cent of the money raised will go towards helping homeless Tasmanians to realise a better life. Some of the money will also be used to distribute hot meals and warm blankets via our Loui’s Vans and Vinnies Vans to people sleeping rough.

“We will use part of the proceeds to find accommodation for families without a home and to help them to re-establish their lives. Our Emergency Relief team is already identifying how and where we should allocate the 2020 CEO Sleepout funds to achieve the best results,” Mrs Alexander said.

“Tasmania could potentially eliminate street homelessness by 2025 if the state adopts the successful ‘collective impact’ model. We owe it to the Tasmanian community – and we certainly owe it to those sleeping rough and at risk of homelessness – to consider collective impact. It is a proven strategy; we just need the will to use it to address the many issues at the root cause of homelessness.

“Collective impact is a framework within which the private sector, not-for-profits, and governments collaborate to solve the multi-dimensional issue of homelessness in all its forms. The framework requires five key elements: a common agenda, a shared system of measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication between stakeholders, and robust organisational infrastructure, such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, to manage the initiative.

“Collective Impact, in conjunction with a functional zero approach, has worked successfully to end veteran and chronic homelessness in over 75 communities across America. Since January 2015, the functional zero approach has realised housing for over 75,000 people, including more than 40,000 veterans.

“Many in our community equate the number of homelessness in Tasmania to those sleeping rough on the streets, in our parks, and under bridges. These are the ‘visible homeless’; who represent just eight per cent of those in need. The invisible 92 per cent live in insecure, temporary, overcrowded, and unsafe places.

“Apart from the constraints of running the CEO Sleepout during COVID-19, we asked participants to sleep in their back yards, in their cars, or to couch-surf, to draw attention to the hundreds of Tasmanians who don’t have a safe home to go to each night, or they rely on friends and family to put a roof over their heads.

“The CEO Sleepout put the spotlight on homelessness in Tasmania and, to-date, has raised $100,688 in Tasmania and $5,582,893 nationally. We now need to use the momentum and the money to tackle homelessness once and for all, with some help from our government and private sector partners. Homelessness must not become an issue we think about every winter or when we hold the CEO sleepout. As a community, we owe each other – and particularly the homeless – far more than that,” Mrs Alexander said.