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Essex: Youth group in carpark sleepout


A grim place to sleep

A grim place to sleep

On Friday night, 27th March, 35 teenagers from Basildon in Essex, slept out all night in the church car park at St Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Laindon. They are preparing to be Confirmed as Catholics, and part of their preparation includes understanding the church's work with the needy and most vulnerable in their town.

"There is no better way to understand something than to experience it," said their Parish Priest, Fr Dominic Howarth, who joined the group in sleeping in the car park for the evening. "Pope Francis says we should be 'a poor Church, for the poor' and this is one way of living that."

The young people expect to raise over £2000 for homelessness and youth projects in the town, including Project 58:7.

Earlier in the evening Phyl McLaren, from Project 58:7, spoke to the group and shared the shocking fact that in Britain 12,000 young people aged 16 & 17 are homeless right now, many sleeping on the streets.

In the morning, one young person said: "It was so cold. I couldn't do that again." Another spoke of how vulnerable you feel when you have only got a sleeping bag around you. "There is no protection if anything happens. You are afraid to shut your eyes."

The whole group said it was a night that they would never forget.

Source: Brentwood Diocese

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