Couch surfing is one of the earliest stages of youth homelessness and is sometimes not even thought of as homelessness at all, therefore, it is easy for people to overlook it. On the Saturday 20 July, Johnstone and Kelynack houses placed eight couches on the Johnson bank for the Rugby fixture against Joeys to raise awareness for the hidden homelessness that is in couch surfing.

George Stent (11/JN) painted a “street art” design onto a 10m long banner which we encouraged students to sign to show their support for the OASIS Couch Project. We easily filled the entire banner with signatures showing Newington’s overwhelming support and willingness to stand up to such an important issue.

We also raised over $500 for OASIS from the couches that were out on the oval that day. We would like to thank all the parents, friends and boys who donated on the day.

Johnstone and Kelynack students continued to show their support for Oasis by attending the Couch Project in Circular Quay on Wednesday 31 July. The initiative involved a glass “cube” set up in circular Quay with a couch inside. Boys sat on the couch in “onesies” to raise awareness for the 14,000 homeless youths that call a couch, that is not their own, home.

 Anthony Achjain (11/KL), Aki Flame (11/JN), and Thomas van der Velde (11/JN)