The CEO SleepOut™ Trustees include:

Bernard Fehon - Patron

Australian business leader Bernard Fehon started the CEO SleepOut Event in Sydney in 2006. Since then the event’s entrepreneurial thinking has touched communities on a global scale, and events now take place around the world.

Ali Gregg  - Founder, CEO, Trustee

Founder and CEO of The CEO SleepOut™ in South Africa, with a strong background in strategic public relations and corporate social responsibility (CSR). She has 20 years of experience working with high-profile leaders and influencers to create “capitalism with a conscience”.

Darren Olivier - Trustee

As a partner at the leading South African law firm Adams & Adams, Olivier has been an Intellectual Property law advisor for 20 years, and sits on the editorial board of Oxford University Press: Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice. 

HOW IT WORKS:

The 4Leaders 4Change

Company CEOs and C-Suite members can register to take part in The CEO SleepOut. This year, as these business leaders spend the night on the street, they will “pay forward” the idea of social entrepreneurship to three future leaders; bringing with them a colleague, a student and a matric learner with notable leadership qualities. Together, they will make up the 4Leaders 4Change. They will all Rise To The Challenge and spend the night on The Nelson Mandela Bridge on 28 July, sparking an inter-generational debate about social change.

PLEDGE:

In order to participate in The CEO SleepOut™, the business leaders must commit to raising R160 000 for our Beneficiary Partners. The funds will be raised in the spirit of paying it forward:

Step 1:

The CEO pledges R100 000 to participate in the event, which is paid forward to their designated colleague nominee.

Step 2:

The designated colleague participant then commits to assist in raising the R50 000 required by the student nominee.

Step 3:

The student assists the matric learner to raise R10 000. The total of R160 000 will then be allocated by The CEO SleepOut Trust™ to the appointed 2016 Educational Beneficiary Partners, who work tirelessly to educate our youth as a means to end the cycle of homelessness. Participating CEOs and C-Suite Members may also be sponsored to SleepOut as supporters can back their chosen CEO with a financial pledge, which will be added to the CEO’s final pledge tally.

THE BENEFICIARIES:

THE ASHA TRUST

A non-profit organisation that provides Early Childhood Development support programmes for under-skilled practitioners and owners of home-based crèches in disadvantaged communities.

COLUMBA LEADERSHIP

Columba Leadership transforms individuals and communities from the inside out, using the ethical values of responsible leadership. They train 15 leaders in a school each year, and then train 150 others through social action. After five years, values-based leadership becomes entrenched in the culture of the school with sustained impact, enabling Columba to exit and move to new schools.

THE STEVE BIKO FOUNDATION

The Steve Biko Foundation aims to restore people to their true humanity. It hopes to strengthen democracy by championing dialogue, scholarships and programmes on the relationship between identity, agency, citizenship and social action, through its work with the youth.

WHAT IS THE SYMPATHY SLEEPOUT™?

We’re asking employees, colleagues and staff to also SleepOut, outdoors at their office parks, in solidarity with their CEO. Companies can stand as a pillar of support for their CEO, but also as messenger for change, saying they support social improvement. This is The Sympathy SleepOut™; representing the idea that business is coming together as a force for good.

To participate, staff must reach out to their company’s preferred CSI initiative to find out what items they need, from food to clothes, books, blankets and more. They must gather these items, instead of funds, and deliver them to the CSI initiative within two weeks of the event.

Helping to drive the Sympathy SleepOut™ message is Kagiso Media and our Digital Media Partner, CliffCentral.com, who will challenge 250 companies across South Africa to participate.

Last year, employees from Business Connexion, Discovery, IQ Business, Sage Pastel, Sun International and others joined the movement and slept out in support of their CEOs. 

WHAT IS THE STUDENT SLEEPOUT?

We’re calling on students – at any public or private tertiary institution around the country – to SleepOut; to spend the night outdoors on their campuses on Thursday 28 July 2016, in solidarity with the CEO SleepOut™ business leaders who will sleep on the bridge, and the student representatives they are taking with them that night. This is The Student SleepOut™.

The Student SleepOut™ participants will also commit to collecting items for beneficiaries of their choice; by identifying either a student and or an institution in need – and gathering the items they need most, from food and books to clothes and stationery. They will deliver these items to their chosen beneficiary after the event.

Kagiso Media are dedicated to spearheading the movement. Supported by the Media Suite Partners, they will help spread the message that #SouthAfricaMustRise, and challenge 250 tertiary institutions to take part.

WHAT IS THE SCHOOL SLEEPOUT™?

Students, teachers and parents at public or private schools are invited to SleepOut™, to spend the night outdoors, on their school grounds, on Thursday 28 July 2016. They’ll do this in solidarity with the #4Leaders4Change who are spending the night on the Nelson Mandela Bridge.

Participants in the School SleepOut™ must identify an outreach school in need, learn about the items they need most – from food and books to clothes and stationery - and commit to gathering and delivering those items, making a difference to those in need.

Through the School SleepOut™ learners will discover empathy for vulnerable communities – and take that feeling with them into the future. It will shape how they look at the world as they enter the classroom, the lecture hall and the boardroom.

Our Media Suite Partners from Caxton Community Newspapers supported by Kagiso Media – are challenging schools across Gauteng and the rest of the country to take part and to spreading the message that #SouthAfricaMustRise.

The ultimate lesson is that everyone is the same, that everyone matters, and that change starts with YOU.