Brad Partridge, Vice President of Strategy, Ascension, hopes some of his colleagues will be extra tired on Friday, November 18. With stiff backs and aching shoulders, he wants them remembering the night before, when they joined other business leaders sleeping on the streets in a national "executive sleep out" to raise money for Covenant House, a New York-based nonprofit organization that assists homeless youth.
Brad's involvement in the Covenant House executive sleep out is featured in a recent story in Catholic Health World. The article explains that Brad, a board member for Covenant House Missouri, and his wife, Laura, are chairing the November 17 executive sleep out in St. Louis. This will be the sixth year Covenant House has hosted the event, which this year expands to 16 cities. Brad would like Ascension executives, especially those in cities served by both Ascension and Covenant House – St. Louis, Washington, D.C., Chicago, New Orleans and Detroit – to join the national fundraising event.
Brad said his involvement with Covenant House Missouri has impacted his work at Ascension, encouraging his focus on behavioral healthcare resources as well as helping him better relate to Ascension's Mission to care for those who are poor and vulnerable.
"It has enabled me to internalize the Catholic social teaching, the principle of solidarity with the poor in a way that I couldn't have internalized without having this connection with this agency, this group – getting to experience things like the sleep out and getting to meet some of the kids being taken care of there," Brad said.
Nationally, Covenant House would like to raise $3 million. In St. Louis, Brad's goal is $300,000.
