Leeds City Council Chief Executive, Tom Riordan, will join key personnel from Leeds businesses and organisations to help tackle the issue of homelessness by spending a night sleeping out at Headingley Carnegie Stadium on the 30th October.
The ‘CEO Sleepout’ event will see several executives from the region spend a night outdoors at the stadium to fight homelessness and poverty in the city by raising funds for St George’s Crypt, CEO Sleepout and Leeds Rhinos Foundation.
Speaking about his involvement in the Sleepout Riordan, who became the youngest Chief Executive in the history of Leeds City Council in 2010, said:
“As the Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, I know we and our partners do lots of valuable work to reduce poverty and homelessness across Leeds.
“The work we do in partnership with third sector organisations like St George's Crypt and the Leeds Rhinos Foundation means that Leeds has about two-thirds fewer people sleeping rough than in comparable cities. We also house fewer people in temporary accommodation than similar cities and housed no one in bed and breakfast accommodation last year.
“But one person sleeping rough is, of course, one person too many. To improve upon this great work, St George's Crypt and the Leeds Rhinos Foundation could do with even more support. That's why I'm pleased to personally get involved in this event and through participating I hope to raise both awareness and funding for these two great charities,” he added.
Through events taking place at famous landmarks throughout the year, CEO Sleepout Charity events have raised over £1 million for homeless causes since launching in 2014, helping enlist over 1,000 executives and the Sleepout at Headingley Carnegie will be the first they have held in Leeds.
Bob Bowman, Leeds Rhinos Foundation Chief Operating Officer, will be joining over thirty executives taking part in the Leeds CEO Sleepout and said he is thrilled so many organisations are coming together to raise funds and awareness for the homeless in the city.
“Everyone involved with Leeds Rhinos Foundation and Leeds Rhinos are delighted that Tom is taking part in our inaugural CEO sleep out,” said Bowman
“Tom is passionate about our great city and rightly so he is proud of the massive growth and development in many sectors of our Leeds community. He is also prepared to roll up his sleeves and show that action speaks a lot louder than words and taking part next Monday evening proves this.”
With under a week to go until the Sleepout event, Bowman is keen for as many people as possible to back the efforts of those taking part on the night by making a donation to one of the executives.
“The Leeds Rhinos Foundation, along with other Leeds third sector organisations, enjoys a very healthy and productive day to day working relationship with Leeds City Council,” added Bowman.
“We are pleased to support the Council’s long-term ambitions and share the desire for Leeds to be the best city in the UK. Similarly, we are pleased that Tom is joining us to raise awareness of a subject that we are doing a lot of great work on here in Leeds but still needs to be tackled now and in the future.”
To support Tom Riordan in fundraising for the event donations can be made to his personal Just Giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tomsleepoutleeds
For more information on the CEO Sleepout event at Headingly Carnegie Stadium and how to get involved visit http://www.ceosleepoutuk.com/leeds/