28/04/2026
This year marks our CEO Courtney's fifth CEO Sleepout.
"Five years of a sleeping bag, a piece of cardboard, and the concrete — and every single year, something shifts in me that no boardroom, no strategy session, and no milestone ever quite replicates.
People ask me why I keep doing it. I run a disability support company. My nights are usually spent in a warm home, mentally preparing for the complexity of the next day — staffing, compliance, client advocacy, clinical governance. I am not someone who needs to sleep rough.
But that's exactly the point.
I do this because the people I spend my life fighting for don't get to choose. My clients — adults with complex physical and cognitive disabilities, people with high and complex needs, people who have often been failed, forgotten, or deprioritised by the systems that were supposed to protect them — they know what it feels like to be invisible. To be without. To be cold in spaces that should feel safe.
I don't do the Sleepout to pretend I understand homelessness. I do it to stay honest. To keep myself tethered to the discomfort that drives good work. To make sure that every year, I remember why ELC exists — not as a business, but as a promise. A promise that every person we serve will know what true support really feels like.
Fifteen years in this sector will either harden you or deepen you. I've chosen to let it deepen me.
And somewhere between midnight and 3am on that concrete, when the cold really sets in and the noise of the city softens, I think about the people we support. I think about the families who rang us because they'd been failed by everyone else. I think about the staff who show up — literally and figuratively — for people who can't show up for themselves. And I think about all the people still out there who don't yet have what our clients have: someone who sees them, fights for them, and refuses to give up.
That's who this is for.
This year — my fifth — I want to raise money.
Not because of a number. But because the need has never been greater, and because if you're reading this, you are someone who has the power to be part of the answer.
Your donation directly supports programs that give vulnerable people — people experiencing homelessness, people with disability, people at the edges of our social systems — a fighting chance, and it all stays here on the GC.
One night uncomfortable is the least I can do. It would be great if you could help make it count.
Every dollar matters. Every dollar is someone being seen.
Thank you for being part of this with me. 🧡
— Courtney"
This June, I’m taking part in the 2026 Vinnies CEO Sleepout to help people facing homelessness – and I’d love your support. For one night, I’ll give up my bed and sleep out on cardboard to gain a small insight into what too many people experience every day. Will you donate to help me reach m...
