Friday 30th September 2016, Conference Room
- Monday 10th October is going to be World Homeless Day. This will be the first year that Launchpad officially recognizes it. It will be good to use the day as an opportunity to increase awareness among the school community of homelessness in Reading.
- Many people are unaware that 'sofa surfing' is a form of homelessness. The majority of those without homes in Reading would be living on their mates' sofas, going to a different friend each night. A good way to promote awareness of this in the school community is to have a sofa somewhere visible in the school ground one day, with someone 'living' on it throughout the day. They could be reading or doing homework, playing guitar or sleeping. We could have a poster giving information nearby and a bucket for donations to Launchpad.
- We should take care to advertise the timeline of upcoming events and promote the launch of our group as a charity partner with Launchpad on the 10th.
- Previously a printing firm had sponsored Launchpad, so the charity have lots of signs, boards, pull-up banners and posters that they are willing to let us use.
- Jason (the representative of Launchpad) is free on the day we have Commemoration. It may be useful to invite him to give a talk on that day.
- We could run a Christmas Jumper day for non-uniform.
- We should target year 7s for awareness and recruiting as they could be active within the school community for 7 years to come, and they weren't here last year learning all that we learnt.
- Organizing a 'sleep out' would be an excellent fundraising event. It has been done by another organization within 13 days' planning. We could hold it within the quad, as then we could lock gates and not have to worry about security. Launchpad have all the files for risk assessment and administration ready to fill out. We will need to get teachers involved to supervise, and possibly have somewhere at school more comfortable for them to sleep. We could also use the time to hold mini-events.
- Social media and word-of-mouth is key in spreading awareness here. Encourage people to take pictures and post their experiences of the 'sleep-out' or the sofa event online - get them to tell their friends.
- We need to emphasize that this is a LOCAL problem but a GLOBAL issue.
- When running a JustGiving page, we could also set up a donation by text code system. Jason knows how to run this.
- Other ideas for events are: inflatable games with help from Joe Stocker, a clothes selling stall, and a shelter building competition during the 'sleep-out' ('cardboard city')
- A BIG thanks to Jason for coming in to meet and talk with us, and also to Sam Steventon for all his organizing efforts!!