Bundaberg Sheridan Outlet has celebrated four years of StreetSmart Australia’s SleepSafe program by hosting representatives from local charity EDON Place.
The meet-up allowed Sheridan staff to hear how the funds they raised in store had directly helped Bundaberg Region locals through providing sleep kits to EDON Place.
SleepSafe helps Australians facing homelessness and crisis to feel worthy, safe, and cared for by providing new bed linen and towels to frontline organisations.
The Sheridan store in Bundaberg has fundraised over 1,900 sleep kits for charities like EDON Place to support clients experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
For every $15 raised in store, SleepSafe provide a sleep kit consisting of a sheet set, pillowcase and towel.
EDON Place Community Engagement Coordinator Jenae George said the organisation had partnered with SleepSafe from the beginning of the initiative and had seen the beneficial impact of providing the sleep kits to victim-survivors of domestic and family violence in supported accommodation.
“When they come in, they have little-to-nothing, and when we're able to provide them with things like the Sleep Safe initiative where we have sheets and towels available for them, it just makes a huge difference in their lives,” Jenae said.
“It gives them that dignity just to restart their lives and obviously have something that belongs to them.”
EDON Place clients keep the sleep kit they receive when entering supported accommodation and are given more items to support their transition to community accommodation.
Jenae said having new towels and sheets donated gave EDON place more flexibility to use other funds raised for other support services.
“We don't have the capacity to be able to fund all these items, so when they're donated it just makes a huge benefit to all the families, and what we're able to provide them with from that point is more around safety transition,” she said.
“Being a not-for-profit organisation, we heavily rely on donations, so being able to just provide that directly, it makes it [a very] big difference when the family's restarting all over again.”
StreetSmart Australia CEO Geoff Hills said wide ranging support for SleepSafe, from Sheridan staff to donors and supporters, has enabled the program to achieve rapid and sustained grassroots impact.
“This year has been extremely difficult for local homeless shelters and groups,” he said.
“The overwhelming demand for help has placed strain on already overstretched services.
“The support of SleepSafe donations has provided significant help to our community partners and we are so grateful for the generosity of Sheridan customers and staff in making this initiative such a success.”
SleepSafe partner network has grown by 14% in 2023 alone and now supplies high quality sheets and towels to 630 homelessness services in Australia.
Sheridan provides a breakdown of costings on its website to provide transparency around how the money raised from customer donations is spent on providing the sleep kits.
EDON Place is a not-for-profit community based organisation providing specialist domestic and family violence support services in the Bundaberg. Find out how to contact them here.
