Raising awareness of Couch Surfing amongst youth

On 13^th September over 100 supporters of The Salvation Army’s Oasis Youth Support Network pulled sleeping bags out of their closets and grabbed blankets off of their bed and prepared their couch and blow up mattresses for the 3rd Annual The Couch Project Campaign.

The Couch Project aims to raise the profile of the issue of “couch-surfing”; a form of hidden homelessness amongst youth, but homelessness nevertheless. When a home is no longer safe, a friend’s couch is the next logical step. However, this is not stable or sustainable.

There is significant risk of young people being forced to sleep rough or in the company of strangers. Homelessness is not a choice. Young people who become homeless often do so because their living situation has become physically, mentally and emotionally unbearable.

The campaign is also an opportunity to raise funds for crisis accommodation services at Oasis Youth Support Network; a service that supports young people aged 16-21 years who no longer feel safe at home and need refuge.

Funding of accommodation services is always a high priority, so we were thrilled with the result from this year’s campaign. A total of $16,000 and counting has been raised so far.

“It costs around $49 to accommodate a young person for 24 hours with bedding, all facilities and food, so as you can imagine the $16,000 raised goes a long way”, said Lara Poulet, Crisis Accommodation Manager.

With whole households, work teams and schools getting involved, participants couldn’t believe how much fun they had, whilst getting behind an important cause.

“I set-up our school hall for Year 12 to have a sleep-over on the Saturday night; we hosted trivia, had a cake stand and it gave the girls and opportunity to have an awesome farewell.” said Caitlin, Year 12 coordinator at Willoughby Girls High School. “I am so proud of the result we got from fundraising – the girls could really connect with the age group and I think it helped push with the fundraising.”

As we put away our Onesies for the year, we are already getting excited for 2015 which we are sure will be our biggest and best year yet.