PIONEERING charity, Social Bite, is calling on young Borderers to help them bring an end to homelessness in Scotland.

After the success of Sleep in the Park in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens last year, Social Bite is launching the Wee Sleep Out – and inviting Borders schoolchildren to dig out their sleeping bags, sign up sponsors and savour a night under the stars.

Kelso High School student Livvy Ferguson is working with Social Bite to create a Wee Sleep Out at Kelso's Springwood Park in November.

And she is urging all youngsters aged eight to 16 to sign up.

The 16-year-old said: “This a great opportunity for young people to come together and play a part in helping to end homelessness in Scotland.

“Social Bite is an amazing charity and, last year, my family and I took part in the Sleep in the Park, which was a humbling experience.

"I didn’t want my support to end there, so I got in touch with Social Bite’s co-founder Alice Thomson and suggested an event in the Borders.

"She thought it was a great idea and now we just need people to join us, and make the Borders’ first Wee Sleep Out a success.”

The Wee Sleep Out is a national awareness-raising and fundraising campaign to get young people involved in the charity’s mission to end homelessness.

It launched this week with a call to all teachers, youth leaders, parents and guardians to challenge young people between eight and 16 years old to take part in Wee Sleep Outs across the country on November 9, as part of Scotland’s Year of Young People 2018.

From living rooms to community halls, sports centres to bedroom floors, each Wee Sleep Out is putting young people in the driving seat and giving them the opportunity to showcase their skills and talents by leading on the development and delivery of their own sleep outs.

There will be no sign-up fee, and no minimum fundraising target to make this initiative accessible to all.

However Social Bite will still be delighted if young people could fundraise as much as they can to contribute to their nationwide movement to end homelessness.

Money raised from the Wee Sleep Out events will go towards Social Bite’s wider Sleep in the Park total to support Social Bite’s major Housing First initiative, and is expected to take 800 rough sleepers off the streets by 2020.

Alice Thomson, co-founder of Social Bite and organiser of the Wee Sleep Out, said: “The success of Sleep in the Park last year was overwhelming.

"To bring 8,000 people together and raise £4 million in the process was incredible, and this year we want the young people of Scotland to join us.

“There’s been a real appetite from the young people of Scotland looking to get involved, and, like Livvy, a number got in touch after Sleep in the Park offering their support.

"We even had Cody McManus, aged nine, brave the Beast from the East and sleep out in an Igloo in his back garden - raising £1,000 for the cause!

"We know that people sleeping rough is just one aspect of the wider homelessness issue, but sleeping out of your comfort zone goes some way to understanding some of the difficulties people affected by homelessness may experience.

“We’re proud to launch the Wee Sleep Out during Scotland’s Year of Young People and give the young people of Scotland a voice. We want people of all ages to get involved with Social Bite’s mission to eradicate homelessness, and we’re inviting young people across the country to get creative and take the lead by organising their own Wee Sleep Out.”

More information on the Borders Wee Sleep Out in Kelso will be presented around schools in September.

But if you would like to organise your own sleep out, you can register at www.weesleepout.co.uk