‘Safe sleep’ sounds like a strange concept to most of us but for people who are sleeping rough, the Queanbeyan sleep bus is a dream ride.
For the past two years, the Sleep Bus has been parked at 1 Farrer Place from Thursday to Sunday night, housing eight, individual sleep pods with ducted heating – and if you’re wondering why the service isn’t seven nights a week, that’s where you come in.
There are not enough volunteers. Already, the Canberra sleep bus service has had to stop due to a lack of volunteers. Now the Queanbeyan service is seeking more helping hands.
You can take your pick – a caretaker role (you stay onboard overnight), service volunteer (a two-hour shift to help guests onboard from 8.30pm to 10pm), housekeeping roles (usually only an hour) and bus drivers.
Here’s someone with a great job title – Slumberjack Service Coordinator, Natalie Genoni.
“We take pets as well,” Natalie beams. “Volunteers can bring their pets or even a partner, bring your best mate, we like that people are enjoying volunteering.”
By 10pm the bus is secure and the caretaker is onboard for the night and no other guests are allowed onboard. To date, the Queanbeyan sleep bus has provided 1,182 safe sleeps (including 19 pets). The majority of guests are in the 40-49 age range.
“We advertise we’re open six nights but if we have to cancel those services then our guests stop showing up as well,” Natalie says. “We’re really trying to push the weekends again because weekends are the most unsafe time for anyone to be on the street.
“There is a role for everyone and every role is as important as the other.
“We can’t run the service unless we have a minimum of one caretaker, two night service people and a bus driver every night to get the bus there and to get it home in the morning. We need housekeeping to get the bus ready for the following day. We don’t want to burn out the volunteers we do have.”
For more information, visit www.sleepbus.org/volunteer
Canberra Daily would love to hear from you about a story idea in the Canberra and surrounding region. Click here to submit a news tip.
