Berkshire’s businesses professionals are being set the challenge of spending a night exposed to the elements at Reading’s Forbury Gardens on Friday, October 7, to raise funds for Action for Children’s annual Byte Night.
This year’s event is expected to see more than 1,700 sleepers across 10 UK cities sleep out, and raise funds for the charity’s work of ensuring every child in the region has a safe and loving place to call home.
Businesses based in the borough are being urged to take part.
Action for Children is holding a special launch event on Wednesday at the Veritas offices at Green Park in Reading. Companies big and small from across the Thames Valley will be given the opportunity to find out how they can get involved in Byte Night and raise money to ensure disadvantaged young people in the area get the support they need and have a safe place to live.
Sally Hanson, chair of the Thames Valley Byte Night board, will host the event.
She said: “Byte Night has raised more than £8 million in support of disadvantaged children and young people since its launch in 1998. I believe we’re an incredibly compassionate region so I’m sure our sleep-out in Reading will again play a large part in contributing to this year’s national target of £1.4million.
“Byte Night is a unique professional networking opportunity as well as a chance to support some of the most vulnerable young people in our society. I’d like to invite all businesses from Berkshire and across the Thames Valley to attend our launch to find out more – one night really can make a lifetime’s difference.”
Teams from the region’s companies including KPMG, EY, RBS and Barclays are already signed up to sleep out. The funds raised at our Thames Valley Byte Night will support Action for Children services such as Here4Me in Newbury, which provides vulnerable young people with independent visitors, mentors and advocates.
Emma Horne, director of children’s services at Action for Children, added: “Our recent report ‘Losing in the long run’ shows that Government funding for early help services in the South East is expected to be cut by 70 per cent, from just over £415m to £126m between 2010 and 2020, leaving children and families without the early support that often stops their problems spiralling out of control.
“As early help funding from central government continues to diminish, awareness raising and fundraising initiatives such as Byte Night are even more vital to support our services to ensure young people don’t slip through the next and end up with nowhere to go.”
The Thames Valley Byte Night launch event is open to everyone and takes place from 6pm to 8.30pm on Wednesday, April 27 at Veritas, 350 Brook Drive, Green Park, Reading, Berkshire, RG2 6UH.
To find out more about Byte Night visit bytenight.org.uk or contact the Byte Night team on bytenight@actionforchildren.
