Imagine yourself homeless. Nowhere to go, nobody to speak to, at the mercy of the streets, the weather and everyone around you. Imagine no money, having to depend on the kindness of strangers to get by - strangers who will, 99% of the time, treat you like you're completely invisible.

Now imagine yourself as sixteen and homeless. Young, confused, without support. Not a nice thought, is it?

Centrepoint is the leading charity whose aim is to help the young homeless aged between 16-25; a group which is statistically one of the most vulnerable. Their work is vitally important to Britain's young homeless in that it provides:

SHELTER, and with it the first step out of long-term homelessness.

HEALTHCARE, and advice for young people on how to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

FINANCIAL HELP, in lessening the debts that hinder many young people.

EDUCATION, a crucial step in getting back into work.

SUPPORT for young people, in both putting their homelessness behind them, moving on and developing to their full potential.

These are the greatest gifts a young homeless person could have, and Centrepoint works day in, day out to make life better for the approximate 75,000 young homeless out there.

• The Centrepoint website [x]
• Donate to Centrepoint [x]
  
• Shop through Centrepoint's 'Shop and Give' [x]
  
• Galen Ayers: "Cold Night With a Warm Heart: Centrepoint's Sleep Out 2010 [x]

Every year, I partake in a month of insanity; of madness of the purest kind. There are pens involved, and a lot of caffeine. Often, a lot of people who aren’t real suffer and die. My RSI starts playing up. And I bloody love it.

Without the Office of Letters and Light, this wouldn’t be possible.

National Novel Writing Month started, in 2001, with only 21 participants. In their second year, 140 dared to brave the high and Wordy Seas. In the third, there were 5000 people screaming to get into the literary insane asylum.

Pretty indicative of how crazy this whole thing is, right?

This year, 2010, there were nearly 32,000 winners out of almost 200,000. Next year, no doubt, there’ll be even more.

The Office of Letters and Light is a non-profit organisation who put the time, money and effort into running not only NaNoWriMo, but the Young Writers Program and Script Frenzy on an annual basis. Every penny they make from donations and merchandise goes into the running of the organisation, holding NaNoWriMo, the YWP and Script Frenzy for years to come, as well as some pretty awesome charity work.

Without donations they wouldn’t be able to bring NaNoWriMo into schools and libraries across the world, or flying computers out to disadvantaged schools in third world countries. The OLL is about spreading the literary love; about not being the greatest writer in the world but not giving a toss and writing anyway.

• Donate to the Office of Letters and Light [x]
• OLL Shop [x]
• NaNoWriMo Homepage [x]
• YWP Homepage [x]
• Script Frenzy Homepage [x]