Media release: Duvet design tackles homelessness

Leading interior accessories retailer, Dutch by Design, has launched the duvet design featuring a series of photographic prints of a cardboard box. Combined with its strapline ‘Sleep under a cardboard box so a homeless person doesn’t have to’, the Home Duvet endeavours to highlight the plight of the homeless sleeping rough on the streets.

Centrepoint, the UK’s leading charity for homeless young people, hopes that the Home Duvet will have a wide appeal ranging from the fashion conscious to the socially conscious. The sales of the duvet will help to raise vital funds for Centrepoint which will receive 30% of the profits, as it works to increase awareness of the vast numbers of young people sleeping on the streets.

Clare Norton, Director of Services at Centrepoint said: “We hope that this smartly designed product will help raise awareness of the numbers of young people who do not have a safe place to call home. Our experience at Centrepoint shows that 47% of the young people coming to our services have slept rough at some point in their life.”

“We are grateful to Dutch by Design for working with us in the fight against youth homelessness, whilst also raising vital funds to help Centrepoint support homeless young people.”

Managing Director at Dutch by Design, Venka de Rooij, said: “We think it is important that businesses strive to raise awareness of homelessness which remains an enormous problem in society today. The Home Duvet will help to raise awareness of this amongst a number of people, including those that like the quirky design but perhaps were unaware of the scale of homelessness”.

 
ENDS

Notes to editors:

• 30% of gross profits raised from sales of the Home Duvet will be donated to Centrepoint.
• The Home Duvet went on sale on September 29^th and is available to buy online at www.dutchbydesign.com
• Prices start from £33.95.
• The first UK-wide study of youth homelessness for a decade, conducted by Centrepoint and York University, and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that at least 75,000 young people in the UK experienced homelessness in 2006-07. For a summary of the report, see http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/2221.asp

About Centrepoint

• For more information about Centrepoint, or for pictures and interviews please contact Alex Bolton on Tel: 020 7423 6887 or email a.bolton@centrepoint.org
• Centrepoint is the national charity working to improve the lives of socially excluded homeless young people aged 16 - 25.  It provides a range of accommodation based services, including emergency night shelters and short stay hostels, specialist projects for care leavers, ex-offenders, young single parents, foyers and supported flats and floating support services. These accommodation services provide the foundations from which young people can start tackling the issues that lead to them becoming homeless, and developing the skills they need for a sustainable future.
• Centrepoint is a leading national charity that successfully prevents and tackles youth homelessness.
• Since 1969 Centrepoint has helped more than 70,000 young people.
• At any one time Centrepoint works with over 800 young people.
• HRH Prince William became Centrepoint’s patron in 2005.
• For further information about the work of Centrepoint, see www.centrepoint.org.uk
• Centrepoint’s Charity Number is 2922411 and donation line is 0800 23 23 20.

About Dutch by Design

• For more information about Dutch by Design please contact Venka de Rooij on 0844 884 2340 or email venka@dutchbydesign.com
• The Home Duvet is ethically produced and is made to the highest quality of Dutch by Design’s products.