NASHUA – With its 7th annual United We Sleep fundraiser coming up Oct. 14-15, the United Way of Greater Nashua continues to seek volunteers to join in the popular community sleepover to help boost awareness of homelessness and raise funds that help fuel the fight to end homelessness in the community.

Participants in United We Sleep experience a night of homelessness by sleeping overnight with only cardboard boxes and similar materials as shelter.

The event will take place on the campus of Nashua Community College, 505 Amherst St., beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, through 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. To register as a participant, go to https://unitedwaynashua.org/event/united-we-sleep and scroll down to the “register here” link.

United We Sleep has raised more than $365,000 since its inception, funds that support various local programs that “fight to break the cycle of poverty, hunger and homelessness.”

Agencies and programs that benefit from the funds raised by United We Sleep include the youth-oriented programs of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua; the housing programs offered at the Front Door Agency, Marguerite’s Place and Family Promise; educational programs such as those at the Adult Learning Center, and health access programs at the Adult Day Center and Dental Connection.

In all, 29 programs benefit from the funding, allowing clients to “access the building blocks of a good life – health, education and financial stability.”

United We Sleep is “deeply experiential, with all participants learning from community experts about the causes of homelessness and solutions” to those causes.

Over the years, between 50-70 participants have volunteered for United We Sleep.

For more about United We Sleep, go to https://unitedwaynashua.org/event/united-we-sleep.

For more about the United Way in general, go to www.unitedwaynashua.org or contact info@unitedwaynashua.org or 882-4011.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.