Running to show the humanity behind every blanket - the story behind the 16:15 Charity Run
Running Tales speaks to Stan Robertson from Project 16:15, the charity set to benefit from fun run fundraiser
Stan Robertson doesn’t do running.
The founder of rough sleeper charity Project 16:15 winces at the idea of a six hour run.
But the 16:15 Charity Run, due to take place on Saturday, May 20 between 8am and 2pm, bares his charity’s name.
And the Northampton Racecourse-based event will raise money and awareness for Project 16:15 and of the plight of rough sleepers.
So surely he’s going to do a couple of laps?
At first it looks as if Stan, who will be manning an aid table providing food and drinks to runners on the day, won’t be having his arm twisted: “I will be there for most of those hours… sitting in my tent serving drinks.”
But he adds: “I am planning to do a walkabout live doing some interviews and chatting to people, so I will do at least one lap.”
Stan’s one lap is perfect. It is what the 16:15 Charity Run is all about.
While the event may go on for six hours, taking in loops of the first 1.6 mile lap of the Racecourse’s parkrun route, there is no obligation for participants to run any further or longer than they want.
The free event is open to all, with the hope being runners will fundraise for Project 16:15 or provide a donation on the day.
The mantra for the run is: ‘No t-shirts. No medals. Just the joyous feeling of going for a run and helping raise money to help those less fortunate than you.’
A baptism of ice
Those ‘less fortunate’ people are the rough sleepers of Northampton, who Stan says he and his charity have the pleasure to serve.
Project 16:15 was formed in late 2017 and had a baptism of ice when the Beast from the East cold snap hit just months later.
One of the people who stayed out in freezing conditions was George Murray. He refused all offers of help and remained on Northampton’s streets in the freezing conditions.
George would eventually be found his own flat due to the hard work of West Northamptonshire Council’s Outreach team, but sadly he died in September last year.
Our own Michelle Lewis, whose Step Forward With Lewis business came up with the idea of the run, tells Running Tales: “George was a hugely well-known and popular figure on Northampton's streets.
“But all too often rough sleepers like George only get the help and recognition they deserve when it is too late.
"The idea of a charity run actually came from a podcast guest of ours, Ben Davies, who did something similar in Cannock.
"His run actually went on for 24-hours, but we decided six was more than enough.
"People can run as far or as short a distance as they like - the aim is simply to raise awareness, and hopefully some money, to help those less fortunate than us.
"With a bit of luck, we can help the next George in some small way."
From a rucksack to an all-round welfare service
Talking about the formation of Project 16:15, Stan says: “It was started to deliver to people what I felt was missing on the streets: dignity, self-respect, value and worth.
“People living on the streets didn’t understand they were worth anything in life, and their lives were focused daily on their situation and their circumstance.
“I wanted to give them a reason to wake up in the morning, and a reason to think they could do more and be more than where they were at.”
At first, Stan just walked up and down Northampton’s Abington Street carrying a rucksack full of bacon rolls and an urn of coffee.
It was a month before he graduated to a basic trolley: “The first one was one of those little black trolleys that solicitors wheel about with files in.
“The bottom kept falling out.”
Eventually, Stan upgraded to a more sturdy trolley and these days the charity even has a food van.
The advance in equipment is mirrored by similar developments in the scope of Project 16:15.
“It started as breakfast in bed,” Stan says.
“It’s the most important time of the day, people are waking up, there is nothing available to them until later in the day so it is just a really, really dark time.
“As that progressed, we came across greater need and realised people required more than just a hot meal in the morning.
“They needed company and conversation, so we started spending more time speaking to people and listening to their stories and letting them be heard.
“That moved on to sleeping bags, clothing and tents, and general welfare. It became an all-round welfare service, seven-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year.”
Now an official charity, Project 16:15 also incorporates a collection van and a food bank service called ‘The Dignity Pantry’.
At one point it even ran a homeless football team in Northampton.
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“The money raised through this event will support everybody who has been on our streets, past and present,” Stan says.
“We still support people who have been on our streets. who are going through the cycle of accommodation and maybe prison and back to the streets, or even those in hospital.
“It will go not just towards food - as we are well blessed with food donations - but towards the welfare work we do and to the provision of safety equipment - things like hand-held alarms or torches - or luxuries like wind-up radios.
“One of our favourite things is the sleep pods we provide. As the winter looks like it is about to get colder again, we will have to invest in more of those.”
Death, sex and assaults on our streets
The 16:15 Charity Run also aims to raise awareness of the plight of those who sleep on our streets.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the average age of death for homeless men in the UK is 45.9 years old. For women, that number falls to 41.6.
Stan tells Running Tales that every single rough sleeper he was serving breakfast to back in 2017 is now, happily, in accommodation or, tragically, has died.
“There isn’t anyone left out there now who was out there five years ago.
“What happens is people give up. They don’t see a way out of where the are, out of the addiction or the drink, or the poverty circle they are in.”
As well as the spectre of death and the obvious discomfort of sometimes extreme weather and poor sleeping conditions, rough sleepers also face assault and sexual assault on an all too regular basis.
Stan said the majority of incidents are carried out by drunk men, who”come out of pubs, see a young girl on the streets and think it is ok to take what they want.
“We’ve also had a long running issue of equipment being used as currency on our streets for sexual assaults and sexual trafficking. Tents or even a blanket, if given to the wrong people, are used to bargain for sexual favours.”
There have been regular incidences in Northampton of homeless people or their tents being used as toilets, or set on fire.
Stan told Running Tales: “To me awareness is more important than money.
“We want to educate people, make them aware of the humanity of homelessness. I’ve said many times that there is humanity behind every blanket.”