Drum Staff Sleep Rough

7th September 2006

Members of staff at Drum Housing Association endured the night-time chill and slept rough in Drum Court's car park last night.  The brave group did so to highlight the plight of the homeless and those living in poor housing conditions, as part of their year-long partnership with the national charity Shelter.

(Andrew Cobb (foreground) leads his staff in the 'sleep out' in Drum Court's car park.)

"Drum is celebrating its 10th year, and whilst we can of course use it as an opportunity to celebrate, we felt that having a meaningful partnership of this sort for the year is very appropriate," explains Andrew Cobb, Drum's Chief Executive. "Everyone involved found it an interesting experience, and I was pleased that members of staff wanted to join me in undertaking this charitable venture. The partnership with Shelter is having a number of consequences, not just in terms of fundraising but also raising awareness of housing and social exclusion issues which will benefit our work as a housing association."
 
In addition to the sleep out, staff are paying to dress down in the office once a month, challenging staff at East Hampshire District Council to a rounders match, holding a bring-and-buy sale, and many other fun activities with the aim of raising over 3,000 for Shelter, who help over 100,000 people a year who are homeless or living in bad housing conditions.

Suman Sandhu of Shelter said "We are so pleased that staff at Drum Housing Association have thrown themselves into fundraising for us with such enthusiasm. The money raised by supporters such as Drum enables us to help people fight for their rights, get back on their feet and find and keep a home. We are grateful to everyone at Drum for their hard work and commitment to fundraising for us."

Drum would like to thank all those individuals and organisations who have already supported its fundraising efforts, and if you would like to support these endeavours, please go to www.justgiving.com/Drumhsg.


(l-r) Kiernan Easton, Customer Benefits Adviser, Tim Leather, Assistant Director ICT, and Peter Bird, Interim Director of Strategic Services bed down for the night.

Shelter believes everyone should have a home. We help more than 170,000 people a year fight for their rights, get back on their feet, and find and keep a home. We also tackle the root causes of Britain's housing crisis by campaigning for new laws, policies and solutions. Shelter launched the Million Children Campaign in April 2004 aimed at getting the Government to commit to ending bad housing for the next generation of children. Bad housing robs children of their health, education and a fair chance in life.

Spokespeople are available for interview. Shelter's ISDN Line is 020 7251 2790.

Shelter's free housing helpline is supported by Bradford & Bingley and provides advice on 0808 800 4444.

For more information about Shelter visit www.shelter.org.uk.