Tonight, well over 300 CEOs will participate in the Vinnies CEO Sleepout to raise funds and awareness for homelessness.

Now, everybody has an image of their head of what a CEO looks like: A snarky old white guy in a pinstripe power suit who sits in a leather swivel chair, commanding his army of minion workers while he sips smugly on a glass of scotch on the rocks. However, the CEOs we’re featuring today aren’t your regular corporate bros, but heroes of Australia’s hip-hop scene. As one half of Horrorshow, Adit Gauchan has been championed for his pensive production styles and forward-thinking approach to beat-making. Meanwhile, Nick Lupi has been dropping serious bars as a member of Spit Syndicate.

Together, Adit and Nick are also the CEOs of One Day – the hip-hop super-group who bring you Australia’s biggest national touring block party and their own mini-festival to boot. They’ll be joining the Vinnies CEO Sleepout tonight, and below they’ve explained why you should care about the issue. You can contribute yourself right here before they participate in the Sleepout tonight, while donations have been flowing in from far and wide. Fellow Inner-West lads Sticky Fingers have even given a signed drum kit to help One Day’s campaign, which is currently sitting at $3550 with five hours to bid!

We’ll pass the keyboard over to Adit & Nick now, so read below and lend a helping hand right here:

Tonight we are doing the Vinnies CEO Sleepout. It’s a bit of a stretch to call ourselves CEOs, but we’re part of the executive team behind the One Day collective and our One Day Sundays parties which take place across Australia.

We’re participating in the Sleepout because homelessness is an issue which is hugely important to us. It affects 1 in every 200 people, roughly 60% of those affected by homelessness are under the age of 35.

Homelessness is a complex issue, one that can seem difficult to relate to. It’s an issue which we all often choose to ignore, because, let’s face it, homelessness is confronting. It is confronting to think that in a society as prosperous as Australia we still have people who don’t have a home to call their own.

Homelessness isn’t just sleeping rough on the streets. Couch surfing, or living in unstable accommodation where you can be kicked out at any time, like a boarding house, are also forms of homeless.

A leading cause of homelessness is housing affordability, an issue that particularly affects young people. Sydney rental prices are extremely high, and if you are a young person with a family and find yourself late on a few payments and get kicked out, you can be easily priced out of the area. Without a family or support network to rely on, you can find yourself with nowhere to go. We all think it won’t affect us, but it can be a short slide.

Tackling homelessness means actually addressing things like affordable housing. The demand for social housing is growing and governments are not doing enough to address it; in fact, they’re knocking down and flogging off swathes of public housing.

Young people, those experiencing genuine financial hardship, the homeless, those in social housing or in queues for it: these are the people no politician is speaking to. Homelessness barely rated a mention in the recent Federal Budget. It is unfortunately up to charities like Vinnies to help those most vulnerable and at risk, by providing crisis accommodation and other support services.

We’re proud to be raising funds to combat homelessness and glad that all money raised from the CEO Sleepout will go directly to homeless services. But the Sleepout is also about raising awareness and empathy of the participants. It’s about community leaders coming together to increase awareness of the plight of people experiencing homelessness.

We, the One Day collective, are proud Sydneysiders and Australians but firmly believe there are many areas we can and should be doing better in. We care about our community and we believe strongly in using the platform we have to try and affect positive change within our community.