MEDIA RELEASE Wednesday 21 April 2010
Vinnies CEO Sleepout comes to Perth Following its huge success in Sydney last year, the Vinnies CEO Sleepout goes national on Thursday 17 June 2010, when hundreds of CEOs and business leaders will sleep out across Australia. The St Vincent de Paul Society in Western Australia will launch the Vinnies CEO Sleepout, Perth event on Thursday 22 April at Passages Resource Centre. Passages is a joint venture between Perth Rotary and the St Vincent de Paul Society providing information, referrals and support to homeless and street present young people. The Society and state event partners Australian Institute of Company Directors and WA Business News are calling on all business and community leaders to rise to the challenge and join them at the WACA on Thursday 17 June. The event will also be held in Sydney (Luna Park), Canberra (National Museum of Australia), Melbourne (Etihad Stadium), Adelaide (Adelaide Zoo), Darwin (The Gardens Oval) and Brisbane (Suncorp Piazza, Southbank) with a target of more than $1 million. Tasmanian CEOs will sleep out at the Melbourne event. Participating CEOs can register on www.ceosleepout.org.au. “The Vinnies CEO Sleepout is rapidly gathering a momentum, as evidenced by its national rollout,” the National CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society, Dr John Falzon said. “It captures the real concern in the community about social inequality and an increasing awareness by business that it can have a role in addressing the situation.” “The night is not an easy one,” he said. “Participants literally bed down on a sheet of cardboard on the ground, with only a mug of soup to sustain them, on what is usually one of the coldest nights of the year. Last year it rained non-stop, but still most of those who were there have indicated they will come back again this year. “The experience of stepping into another person’s shoes like this, to get a tiny sense of what it must be like to have no home, can change the way you think about the world. The business leaders who have chosen to do this say it is literally a life-changing experience.” Dr Falzon said it was especially important for the “big end of town” to understand the issues surrounding homelessness, as they were often the ones who had the power to influence change and make a difference.
“Homelessness is a breach of basic human rights,” he said. “It is an insidious problem, the causes of which are many and complex. While the Australian Bureau of Statistics puts the number of homeless people nationally at around 105,000, including 34,000 children, the actual number is almost impossible to quantify. From where we sit at the coal face, we believe the number is probably much higher.” Dr Falzon said all the money raised would go to developing new and supporting current homeless services nationally including homeless youth services, mental health services, night patrol/soup van services, accommodation for men, family services, refuges for women and their children escaping domestic violence, and education and recreation facilities offering life skills courses, training and access to medical, legal and financial advice.
For more information and to arrange interviews and pre-records contact; Lisa Torre, Communications Officer, St Vincent de Paul Society (WA) Inc on 0418 595 899.
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY When: Thursday 22 April 2010 at 10am to 11am Where: Passages Resource Centre, 22 Palmerston Street, Northbridge In Attendance: Sam, current resident of the Society’s accommodation service, Vincentcare Clément Astruc, State President, St Vincent de Paul Society (WA) Inc John Bouffler, CEO, St Vincent de Paul Society (WA) Inc Suzanne Ardagh, State Manager, Australian Institute of Company Directors Robin McClellan, State Director, Committee for Economic Development of Australia John Poulsen, Managing Partner, Minter Ellison Lawyers Jeff Leach, Perth Rotary and Board Member, Passages Resource Centre Media Spokespeople: National Media Spokesperson: Dr John Falzon State Media Spokespeople: John Bouffler and Lucinda Ardagh