"It was really challenging" - Two Brews volunteer reflects on 48 hours surviving on streets of Manchester

“It was really challenging” – Two Brews volunteer reflects on 48 hours surviving on streets of Manchester

A group of volunteers from a Salford homeless charity has spent the weekend living on the streets.

Six team members from Two Brews, which was founded on Christmas Day last year, set themselves the challenge of a 48-hour sleep-out to understand the homeless community’s struggles while raising much-needed funds along the way.

Jordan Parker, co-founder of Two Brews, said: “The reason behind the establishment of the homeless group was to cover the Christmas period when a lot of outreach teams were going to spend time away with their families.

“But then, with the support that we had, we decided that we were going to become bigger and be full-time volunteers providing hot meals, hot drinks, essentials and support for the homeless people in the city centre.

“As for the sleep-out, Dave Evans, one of the other co-founders, has always been talking about doing it to get into the eyes of the homeless people and see how they live.”

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From noon on Friday April 16 to noon on Sunday April 18, Two Brews’ admin staff were based in Manchester city centre, with food and drink only accessible via street engagement and outreach teams.

Jordan explained: “It was obviously to raise money, but it was a more personal thing for us as well – we go out every night speaking to these guys, so we wanted to see how they live, the challenges they face and what it’s like for them.

“Forty-eight hours was very challenging.

“We literally just started as if we’d just been put on the streets, so even within a couple of hours, not eating, not having something to drink and having to obviously beg to survive – it was really challenging.”

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Despite the difficulties the Two Brews volunteers faced over the weekend, the team is now planning future sleep-outs alongside its usual charitable efforts.

Jordan added: “We drummed up quite a lot of interest when we announced that we were doing the 48-hour sleep-out, so it’s something that we’ll definitely look at doing again, involving other people along the way.

“All of our details are on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, whether it’s going on the Amazon wish list to buy a sleeping bag, donating money or registering for the volunteers list.”