Croydon

Community mission

Please Mr Dj Play Us Some Lullabies

2 GoodGymers made their way to help the Evolve Housing + Support in Croydon.

  • Juliet Stevenson
  • Conroy
 
Sunday, 24th of March 2019
 
Led by Conroy

Just like GoodGym, working tirelessly to combat isolation with the elderly Evolve Housing are doing a similar job in combating homelessness.

My self and Juliet were fortunate to experience the how supportive Croydon residents and folks from as far as Devon are to homeless within the community. Juliet signed up for the early shift and I arrived just in time for the big speech of gratitude and thanks to all the people who had turned out tonight in support of Evolve Housing efforts in combating homelessness.

Following the speech and a run through the plans for the next 8 hours all sleepers were ushered out into the main area in Box Park where all the tables and chairs had been cleared to make room for tonights sleep out. It was very busy as everyone tried to find a spot to make their bed for the night after about an hour everyone had found their space and unpacked their sleeping bags ready to bed down for the night.

There was a lot of social media activities taking place, Croydon's social media presence must have hit it's highest peak as all around there were folks on FaceTime, WhatsApp video call, Instagram live, Facebook, twitter and snapchat sharing their stories.

  • 23:20 the lullabies came on (twinkle twinkle little stars, rock a bye baby, hush little baby....) a few of us walked through to see if anyone had noticed that the music had changed, there was no sign that they had spotted what had just taken place.
  • 23:30 the main lights went off, everyone noticed that as it was greeted with cheers, for a while there was a little light show setting the scene getting the sleepers ready for bed.

  • 00:00 less chatter could be heard, we listened but did not hear any snoring, we all wondered which section the first snoring would be heard but we couldn't decide, when then talked about how to wake them in the morning and there where a few suggestions of a bugle, heavy metal blasting through the speakers or just a gentle nudge. We decided that it shouldn't be anything to startle them given that they have given up their warm beds to support a worthy cause.

I guess I will have to wait until the morning to hear what the wake up call was as I wasn't spending the night and left at about 00:20, unlike most of those who are spending the night I had work in the morning. Although I did speak to a few people who were actually going to work in the morning.

Report written by Conroy


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Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Stevenson
Monday March 25th, 2019 09:13

It was a great evening and I was told they'd raised at least £50K!

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Conroy
Led by Conroy

Just a regular guy, who likes running, doing my bit for the community.

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