FIVE participants in the Committee for Ballarat\u2019s leadership program, Future Shapers, are encouraging people to lend their support to a push to establish a sleep bus in the city.<\/p>\n
Branded as Sleepbus, the project involves setting up mobile homeless shelter offering people a place to rest.<\/p>\n
Future Shapers participant Joeline Rayment said having one in the region would serve as \u201ctangible\u201d aid to people with insecure housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s offering a possible, actionable solution and a supportive treatment for our homeless situation in Ballarat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of them can\u2019t get a safe spot to sleep and that\u2019s before you even remember our winters can be bloody freezing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat environment affects your ability to engage with services, your mental and physical health, everything declines.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sleep bus in Ballarat would provide overnight accommodation for more than 20 homeless or rough sleepers.<\/p>\n
Ms Rayment said their fundraising goal builds on the Future Shapers homelessness forum, Ballarat, where are you sleeping tonight? which took place in November.<\/p>\n
The group is set to host a charity screening of Mrs Harris Goes to Paris at Regent Cinemas on Friday, 4 November with the goal of raising about $100,000.<\/p>\n
More fundraising activities will be organised, and Ms Rayment said the results will be from the community, for the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can raise that money, we\u2019ll have a Sleepbus here just like the Soupbus, like the [One Humanity] Shower Bus. It\u2019ll be ours and ran by the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be able to support our homeless and rough sleepers while the other programs are doing what they can to move the system along with transitional housing and things like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rough sleepers in Ballarat have almost doubled in the last 12 months. We don\u2019t want it get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside Ms Rayment, the initiative is being coordinated by Future Shapers participants Bicarra Gazanis, Charaka Lelwala, Chrystal Douflias and Renata Rotast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FIVE participants in the Committee for Ballarat\u2019s leadership program, Future Shapers, are encouraging people to lend their support to a push to establish a sleep bus in the city. Branded as Sleepbus, the project involves setting up mobile homeless shelter offering people a place to rest. Future Shapers participant Joeline Rayment said having one in […]<\/p>\n