Resilience

From doing this challenge, ‘resilience’ has been a key theme which has been present throughout. Resilience is a critical factor in enterprise & entrepreneurship, as it plays a part in successful outcomes (Verreynne et al., 2018). As a group, we endeavoured to succeed the challenge and wanted to stay out for a long as possible to experience rough sleeping. there were times in which we all wanted to not do the challenge as we thought it wouldn’t be bearable, or leave early, however we were resilient and stayed out as long as we could. We acquired personal resistance where we had the ability to withstand difficult conditions out in the cold on the floor.

In literature, resilience is generally linked to ‘intention’ (Cope, 2011), and this was clear during our project as we had intention to carry out our challenge and gain an experience which would allow us to emphasise more. From being resilient, we were able to be successful in our challenge and achieved a better understanding of rough sleeping. In Bristol, there must be ‘community resilience’ in order to battle the crisis of homelessness and support people more in our society.

References:

Verreynne, M., Marcus Ho, M., & Linnenluecke, M. (2018) “Editorial for the special issue on: organizational resilience and the entrepreneurial firm”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 24 Issue: 7, pp.1122-1128.

Cope, J. 2011. Entrepreneurial learning from failure: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Journal of Business Venturing 26 (6): 604-623.

Our thoughts after the challenge

Izzy’s thoughts

At the beginning of the challenge I was not excited to start as I was feeling tired and was not up for a long night out in the cold on campus. I ensured that I put on a lot of layers so I would feel as little cold as possible. The group decided to meet around 10/10:30 outside of the SU on campus. When we were all together we waited on the bench for another group who was doing the challenge and all discussed our thoughts on the night. It was clear that most of us were not planning on staying until 6am but we were going to try and stay out as long as we could. When all the groups were together we went to the farmhouse to see where we would be staying.

When we got to the farmhouse it was clear that others didn’t want to stay there, so the groups then moved to the fielded area next to the farmhouse by Wallscourt where there was a bench area and path. Here is where we spent most of the night, we documented this by taking photos and videos. We were able to stay up until around 3:30am until most people wanted to go home. My thoughts on the challenge were that it was perhaps not an accurate experience of what it is like to be a young rough sleeper in Bristol. This is because for the majority of it we were having a laugh and were all with each other, as well as having the toilets to use and food/drinks. Therefore, this is not a correct representation and although we had a good time, we were not able to properly experience life as a rough sleeper. However, there did come a point where we were all pretty cold and tired, so in a way this feeling made me understand what rough sleepers have to feel all the time, and this has allowed me to emphasise with them as that is their reality and they do not have the luxury we do to just leave and go back to our rooms.

Lucy’s thoughts

(Lucy has decided to change course)

Maddy’s thoughts

Prior to the sleepout, on my journey to campus, I visited the local McDonalds and bought myself a meal to take away in case I felt hungry throughout the night. As usual there was a homeless man sat outside asking for spare change, I didn’t have any on my person and so carried on by with the thoughts in my head that I was about to experience a night in his shoes. We started our sleep out at 10pm, the weather forecast was pretty awful so I was already feeling skeptical about how long I would be able to last in the cold, I just prayed for no rain. Each wearing about 10 Layers of clothing, my group met and chose a spot to settle down for the night.

We laid out our sleeping bags and began chatting, it was here that I realised the importance of social contact; being surrounded by peers made the process a whole lot more bare-able. I’m sure that the homeless must find great comfort in talking about their experiences and the affect these have on their emotions to people that can relate. The time then came of needing to empty my bladder, one of the factors that I was particularly worried about leading up to the sleepout, anyhow, we were in fact granted use of the Farmhouse toilets. Although, I was ultimately glad of this, I recognise that this would not be the case for the homeless, a factor that we take for granted however, without it hygiene levels must inevitably be compromised.

At around 1am, after hours of feeling the cold, I began to feel fed up, questioning how much longer I could last, to overcome this I decided to eat the McDonalds I had purchased earlier. I was surprised by the great comfort that could be found in food, again something I usually take for granted, and this allowed me to feel a little more motivated to push on and continue the sleepout. The process of sleeping rough even for the one night I endured was actually very boring, with no TV or digital devices for entertainment. We were however allowed to bring our mobiles to document our experience by capturing video and photographic evidence. I tried to use my phone only for this purpose and avoided checking social media or playing games to pass the time as I am aware that this privilege is not available to the homeless, unfortunately during the stints of boredom this was sometimes hard to resist.

3:30pm came and the rain began so we made the group decision of retiring from the sleepout and heading home. I did feel slightly disappointed in myself however, by this point I was freezing and suffering with my common cold which felt as if it was getting worse and worse by the hour. On my way home, I passed the homeless man still sat outside McDonalds and remembered the comfort that I felt when eating and the way in which it allowed me to persevere, I still had no change on me but decided to go the local shop and buy him a sandwich using my card. Instantly I saw the delight on his face and I felt assured in myself that this challenge has indeed increased my empathy levels.

The sleep out was certainly an eye-opening experience, much harder to endure than I had first anticipated. Even though my experience was most likely not half as difficult as real homelessness, I do feel that I have gained an insight into the hardships after having experienced a small glimpse of how they live, allowing me to better understand the effect it has and consequently empathise the situation they are in and take action to help.

Joe’s thoughts

I had some preconceptions about the challenge prior to doing it like what the weather was going to be like on the night which could have caused the challenge to be a lot more challenging than it could have been. Luckily, the weather was very good on the night. I believe that this was a main reason as to why we were all in quite high spirits at the start of the challenge. Once we were into the challenge, we set out on finding a suitable place for us to settle down as a group and sit the night out. As we got further into the night it did start to drag on a bit but it would have been going against the objectives of the challenge if we were to call it a night and go back home as we only had to spend a night sleeping rough opposed to months, even years on the streets. As it got towards the end of the sleep out we were all in agreement that the situation that rough sleepers are in is truly unacceptable and that was from just a few hours over a single night outside. Overall, my after thoughts on the sleep out is that it is a very good way of empathizing which has been a crucial part of this module.

Our thoughts before the challenge

Izzy’s thoughts:

We plan to complete our rough sleep out in the week commencing the 1st April. Currently we aren’t sure about where we will be doing this, however we have a few ideas but still need conformation from the organisers of this challenge. When thinking about the challenge thoughts concerning the weather are the most worrying, especially if the weather is bad, raining or cold. However, I guess the whole point is to experience what it is like for a homeless person to sleep outside. Other thoughts include going to the toilet outside somewhere which does not sound appealing, as well as not having usual luxuries like my laptop and a bed.

Update: We now know that our sleep out will take place Friday 5th April, near around where the SU is and the Farmhouse/Robotics Lab. Currently the weather forecast shows that it is going to be cold but no rain at night. We are allowed to go to the toilet in the Farmhouse which is reassuring and if the weather becomes unbearable then we are allowed to leave, although we aim to be resilient as this is a key theme for our challenge. Hopefully all will be fine and we are able to carry the challenge out in order to experience what life is like as a rough sleep and better understand/empathise with young people who are homeless in Bristol.

Lucy’s thoughts:

I am slightly apprehensive about the sleep out due to the potentially bad weather conditions and the lack of sleep as well as the possible risks of sleeping outside for 8 hours. However, I do feel as though it will be a good experience and provide me with an insight into what life may be like for a homeless person.

Maddy’s thoughts:

I am feeling rather apprehensive about the sleep out especially considering the bad weather forecast and the fact that I have been suffering from the common cold over the recent week. Ideally, I would have preferred to carry out the activity at a warmer point in the year, however I do understand that for homeless people this is not an option and the negative factors will unfortunately not dismiss them from sleeping on the street, meaning that nor should it me as I have taken on the challenge of experiencing true homelessness for the night.

The reason I have taken on this challenge is to experience the hardship of homelessness in order to make better understanding of it. I believe that the experience will leave me feeling empathetic, I hope to direct my emotions and learned understanding into spreading awareness and coming up with solutions to ease the hardship based on my own experience.

The factor that I am most apprehensive about is the weather, I am worried that I will find it tough to stay warm and dry especially due to the fact that I am struggling to find suitable equipment I.e a warm sleeping bag, and I am unsure of the surroundings of the location in which the sleep out is being held I.e will there be a place to shelter from wind and rain. I will be glad to have my peers beside me completing the task as a group as I believe that socialising and support from those in a similar situations is a strong coping mechanism for the homeless.

Joe’s thoughts:

Before the Sleep Out challenge, I’m staying open minded about it as overall it is only one night that we will be doing it for. The only thing that could dictate the outcome of the night being overwhelmingly negative is if the weather conditions were bad (raining etc). I feel that the night will be a beneficial experience and will help with empathizing from the point of view of homeless people, which could help with things like the empathy map.