Covenant House, an agency that provides care, food, and shelter to the homeless, has partnered with AU to hold a campus-wide Sleep Out event. For the Nov. 16 event, students will sleep outside on the quad to fundraise and raise awareness of youth homelessness.
The event will take place during National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week; the students involved will help spread awareness and encourage other colleges to participate in a Sleep Out.
The Sleep Out will be begin at 7 p.m. on quad and will officially last from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. If the weather conditions are poor, it will be moved to the lower level of the parking garage in Katzen Arts Center.
Students in a public relations class at AU are organizing the event and teamed up with Covenant House to stand with and support homeless youth.
Senior Steve Cammarota, a student organizer, said the idea stemmed from a professor’s suggestion that they take on Covenant House as a client.
“We find it important because homeless youth generally go unnoticed in the community due to people not knowing what homelessness looks like outside of the obvious image of a person in worn out clothing living on the street,” Cammarota said.
The event will also include a clothing drive requesting donations of professional clothing to give to homeless youth ages 18-24. This clothing will be used for professional interviews, so that young people will have the chance to attend job interviews and eventually find employment.
Cammarota hopes the event will raise awareness and support for all people facing homelessness.
“It's important to support all people suffering from homelessness, be it people forced to live on the street because of their circumstances, or a college student who has to couch surf or live in their car,” Cammarota said.
