Did you know that more than 45,000 young people (under the age of 25) are homeless in Australia on any given night? Many are your neighbours and peers. Sadly, youth homelessness is an increasing issue even in a rich country like Australia. Young people from all walks of life are impacted by homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.
Cut out youth homelessness for schools
Homelessness affects people of all ages, genders, ethnicities and backgrounds.
Youth homelessness is a growing issue and it’s everyone’s responsibility.
To raise awareness of youth homelessness in our community – Lighthouse Foundation encourages schools to take part in our ‘Cut Out Youth Homelessness’ fundraising challenge and learn about this complex issue.
Through this campaign, we aim to raise awareness of the localised issue of youth homelessness within school communities by displaying life-sized ‘cut out’s’ of young people of all ages and backgrounds. Activating this fundraiser on your school grounds is a compelling way to represent the number of homeless youth in your local area, raise awareness and make positive change.
Here’s how it works:
What?
Engage and learn about the scale of the issue of youth homelessness in your local area with real-life stories from Lighthouse’s young people and curriculum-aligned resources available. Learn about what these young people may need to help support them to thrive.
How?
Set a target number of donations for your school that could be based on the number of homeless young people in your local area or the number of high school students at your school. Collect your specified number of physical life-sized cut outs (on loan from Lighthouse) of diverse young people to be displayed at your school. Spark conversation and visually draw attention to the different types of children and young people impacted.
Encourage students, teachers and your school community to donate to Lighthouse Foundation to help support vulnerable young people in need through your school’s own customised fundraising page.
Your donation will help make a real difference to a young person’s life by raising vital funds for essential items such as a cooked meal or a Myki ticket for transport to and from school or work.
When?
You can run this campaign whenever suits your school best. Some schools integrate the campaign into Community Service Week or run alongside national homelessness days like ‘Youth Homelessness Matters Day in April” or “World Homeless Day in October”. The choice is up to you.
In order to maximise student engagement and activate your school community, we recommend this campaign is live for a few days, up to one week, so that many people get a chance to see the cut-outs, donate and feel the impact.
Please contact fundraising@lighthousefoundation.org.au to learn more or start now by registering your school below.
