TVC075 Vinnies CEO SleepOut with Nikki McWatters
The 6th Pillar of Ultimate Vitality is giving back. This year I’ve signed up to do something a little different and join the Vinnies CEO SleepOut – choosing the more chillier location of Melbourne.
I proudly support many non for profit events and have a long standing relationship with 2 key organisations.
 The Layne Beachley Aim For The Stars Foundation as a mentor and running workshops for their recipients, the RSPCA and then support local community projects and events where I can. 
 
So why Vinnies CEO Sleep Out and why now?
I was drawn to this particular cause after I got talking to a former CEO who had at one time almost lost his home, his family and everything. He was very near to living on the streets via a variety of interconnected events that had him going from hero to zero very quickly.
We spoke about the role of charities who provide the behind the scenes bare necessity support for those who are on the brink mentally, financially, socially and physically.
Organisations such as the Salvation Army and Vinnies. Providing a range of support from temporary housing to $50 for electricity, warm blankets or a meal for you and your children.
It is not always those you would expect who need the help most.
While we need to be aware of, support and build awareness for those who need us overseas and in far away places, there are many people who are in our own community that are in dire need for our support, a sense of connection, wellbeing and help when they need it the most.
Before I head to Melbourne next week to join this event I wanted to share the story of someone else who on the outset you would never expect to have been homeless.
Someone well educated, driven and ambitious. Who knows first hand what it is like to go from striving and thriving to barely surviving with a young family.
I hope you enjoy this podcast with author and Vinnies SleepOut ambassador Nikki McWatters. Her story is real, raw and genuine.
It’s up to us not to brush past people, to assume that people who need it the most even know how to ask for help.
It’s up to us as family, friends and as a community to see the signs, to have empathy and break down the stigma so that we can create safety and a sense of belonging close to home.
Meet Nikki Mc Watters 
Nikki was born on the Gold Coast of Queensland in 1966, the eldest of four, to her school-teacher parents.
A good student but rebellious, Nikki had aspirations of becoming an Academy Award-winning actress or a best-selling author. She dabbled in the theatre and revelled in rock n roll. At eighteen, after graduating well from high-school, she ran off to Sydney with a musician, with stars in her eyes and a bulging kit-bag full of dreams.
Reality hit. A string of D-grade T.V commercials, a bit-part in a C-grade movie and some guest spots on Aussie soaps, was not ever going to bag her that Oscar. She married her muso (who’d become a roadie) and soon they had two young sons.
In 1992, with two little boys under five, Nikki found herself alone and penniless when her marriage dissolved. She was 26. The relationship with her family was strained and Nikki moved onto the foldout couch of a nearby friend, with her children, and stayed there while she saved up for a bond on her own place.
Her first independent home-sweet-home was a cockroach infested unit in a bad corner of Bondi Beach but she did her best to make it comfortable.
Taking sporadic cleaning jobs for private homes she scraped by to pa...