The Soul Hub Sleepout is not designed to teach participants what it is like to sleep rough.
The 12-hour event hardly offers enough time to paint a picture of what some fellow human beings experience on a day-to-day basis.
What it will do is give Novocastrians a glimpse into what it is like to lie on cold concrete overnight, exposed to the elements, with limited lighting that is out of your control, and no running water to enjoy a hot shower before bed.
They’re just a few of the simple luxuries most take for granted while our city hosts the highest rates of homelessness in NSW.
Soul Hub CEO Rick Prosser says the event, now in its 13th year, offers a practical way for the community to empathise with those less fortunate, while raising funds to maintain the group’s vital services.
The Soul Hub Sleepout will take place at the Bolton Street Carpark on Friday 19 May from 6pm.
The event will include a rooftop barbecue, raffles, games, live music, a fire pit and other family-friendly activities.
Participants will then sleep overnight in the car park’s open spaces in their own bedding.
“We aren’t trying to replicate the horrendous circumstances some find themselves in,” Rick says.
“We are about raising funds that will help them.”
Sleepout for Soul is Soul Hub’s largest annual fundraiser.
Each year it attracts record numbers of participants.
In 2023, the goal is to raise $200,000 and attract 500 “sleepers”.
Soul Hub volunteer Sue Prosser and her son Luke have been participating in the sleepout since its inception in 2010.
They’ve watched the event grow from nine participants sleeping outdoors at a vineyard, to last year’s record 370.
“The growth has been exponential,” Luke says.
“And, in that time, we’ve watched plenty of guests transform their lives.”
‘Guest’ is the name Soul Hub gives those that come to them for assistance.
The group offer everything from canned food and hot showers to doctors’ appointments, financial advice and pet food.
“After 13 years we’re fortunate to see the change in people,” Sue says.
“We’re not professionals but whatever we have at Soul we give to guests to help them. We don’t store things, we run on a skeleton staff, and we just do our best to try and help.
“We see families back together, we see people getting jobs, we see them starting again – where people had once given up.
“And you understand why people give up on them because of addictions, and prison and things like that.
“But, we’ve literally seen hundreds of guests over the years that have taken one step that has led them to change their world.”
Sue says she attended last year’s event with a former rough sleeper that has since become like family.
“He was rock-bottom two years ago and we honestly didn’t think he’d survive. He was literally living just near where the Sleepout is held,” she told the Newcastle Weekly.
“Then last year he came and slept alongside us all, he was like a new person, he has a job, living at a home, with a family, and studying.”
It’s just one of the stories that are shared at the event, as well as learning about the group’s regular programs and outreaches.
“We know people say how can this be like what the homeless deal with, you have mattresses and blankets and swags,” says Sue.
“We say to them come along and take a small look at what it’s like for some people.
“At the end of it, you know you’re going home to a bed, they don’t.”
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