Sleep in the Park, the mass sleep-out raising money to end homelessness in Scotland, is to be repeated this year across four cities.

Last year’s event saw 8000 people, including the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, spend a freezing December night in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens. Over £4m was raised for the social enterprise Social Bite, helping to pay for the Social Bite Village in Edinburgh and a ‘Housing First’ programme to bring 800 rough sleepers into mainstream tenancies across Scotland.

This year’s event, on Saturday December 8, will take place in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee. Among the performers are Amy MacDonald, KT Tunstall, Lulu, comedian Fred MacAulay and author Irvine Welsh. For more details visit www.sleepinthepark.co.uk

For under 16s, Social Bite is asking youth groups, churches, schools and anyone who works with young people to organise ‘Wee Sleep Out’ events on Friday November 9.

At the time of writing 21 events had been registered across Scotland. For more information visit www.sleepinthepark.co.uk/wee-sleep-out

Life and Work staff are available for talks to Guilds and other church groups.

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