Our aim is to help the rough sleepers around the Kent/ London area by providing sleeping bags/ winter clothing during this Christmas / Winter.

More and more people are sleeping rough. Living on the streets is dangerous. It causes health problems and affects people’s overall well-being. Prolonged periods of rough sleeping has a significant impact on someone's mental and physical health.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

With your kind donations, sleeping bags will be purchased to provide the rough sleepers with a warmer night.

We will also be providing the rough sleepers with information leaflets regarding how they can seek help in the local area.

Other accepted donations: Woolen Gloves, Woolen Hats, and Gloves. During the winter, we are especially in need of warm outerwear: coats, jackets, hats, gloves, and scarves.

If you would like to donate winter clothing, please send us an email/ dm via instagram and we would be happy to assist.

What might sleeping rough this winter look like in a coronavirus world?

As the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in all communal night shelters having to remain closed, the number of Winter Night shelters is going to be severely reduced this winter. Many day centres also remain closed, as the virus prevents opening safely.

The link between Occupational Therapy and rough sleepers:

Restful and adequate sleep provides the foundation for optimal occupational performance, participation, and engagement in daily life. The primary goal of occupational therapy is to sustain and rehabilitate an individual’s intrinsic abilities, the external environment and the demands of the occupations in the areas of self-care, leisure and productivity.

People who experience homelessness can have complex health and social care needs, and are at risk of occupational deprivation and injustice. Occupational therapists therefore have a role to play in working with people who are homeless.This may include helping people to develop and enrich their skills and engage in meaningful occupations, access education and training, seek employment and obtain appropriate accommodation.

Homelessness amplifies poor mental health. The stress of experiencing homelessness may exacerbate previous mental illness and encourage anxiety, fear, depression, sleeplessness and therefore make it more difficult to seek jobs and medical help.

We therefore believe, by providing rough sleepers with a good nights sleep this Christmas, we could help reduce their anxiety levels, feel more part of the community this festive season and enable them to have a warmer sleep throughout the night.

HOW YOU CAN REACH US

Once all the donations have been received, our dedicated instagram page will be updated with the necessary information. Please click the link below to follow us throughout this journey.

Warm Nights For all Instagram Page

Anything you can donate will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Project creators:

Derya Katiksiz, Manpreet Sidhu, Hollie Ryan & Becky Omoregie

Please do not hesitate to email me directly if you’ve got any questions regarding this project. Derya Katiksiz - d.katiksiz303@canterbury.ac.uk