Prince William attended an event marking one year of his Homewards project and urging experts to tell him how best to help. Photo / Getty Images
Prince William attended an event marking one year of his Homewards project and urging experts to tell him how best to help. Photo / Getty Images
He had his football fan hat on at the Euros semifinals match, but The Prince made sure he didn’t miss an important event the next day, sharing his mission to end homelessness, and spending over an hour in Brixton.
The Prince of Wales has apologised for his “hoarse” voice, as he delivered a speech about his mission to end homelessness the morning after England reached the Euro semifinals.
The Prince told guests at the events that he has “got a hoarse voice after last night”, as he enthused over a “hell of a goal”.
He spent more than an hour at an event in Brixton, marking one year of his Homewards project and urging experts in the sector to tell him how best to help.
The project is being piloted in six areas of the UK, where local experts are being encouraged to work together to find solutions to ultimately eradicate homelessness in all its forms.
The Prince urged guests at the event, who were drawn from the charity sector, local authorities and those who have experienced homelessness, to use Homewards as their “resource and support” and asked them to think “creatively” in how the project can help.
In a speech, he acknowledged that “demonstrating that homelessness is not an inevitable part of our society will take time” but said the progress made by Homewards in the first of its five years is a “powerful reminder to everyone of what can be achieved when we work together towards a shared goal”.
He arrived at the event in a small courtyard garden in Brixton, and made his way around six stands representing the six locations of the project – Newport; the Dorset towns of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch; Lambeth; Belfast; Aberdeen; and Sheffield – where three or four local experts were ready to speak to him.
The team from Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch (BPC) raised the topic of the football, knowing the Prince is both president of the FA and an avid fan of Aston Villa – the club for whom winning goal scorer Ollie Watkins plays.
The Prince is both president of the FA and an avid fan of Aston Villa. Photo / Getty Images
“I’ve got a hoarse voice from last night,” the Prince said.
“I have a little moment when I thought ‘... he might do this’!? I was willing him on when he came on. It was a hell of a goal.”
Listening to experts
Later in the event, as someone congratulated him on the result, he looked delighted but laughed: “I didn’t play last night, I can’t take credit for it.”
All six of his conversations centred on the importance of listening to experts already working in the homelessness sector, and hearing how each of their different approaches was tailored to local issues.
“So many people are doing brilliant work and have been doing it for years and years,” he told the Sheffield team. “We want you to feel that [Homewards] is a resource and support for you.”
He joked that establishing six areas had encouraged “a bit of competition”, adding: “I love that because it does bring the best out of everyone.”
Speaking to the Lambeth team, including Abdoul Ndambi of Spiral Skills, which connects young people with the people and services they need to give them a brighter future, the Prince spoke of his concerns about people slipping through the cracks in society.
“We’ve got to make sure we don’t overlook them,” he said. “Find families early enough and work with them.
“If you’re parenting on your own without a village, you’re set up to fail.”
In a particular message to young people who have grown up without a secure support network, he added: “Please tell them we care about them as well.”
Expanding on the topic in front of the stand for Northern Ireland, the Prince said: “What worries me is how can we recreate that love and family support. It’s belonging and knowing people care.
“We need that creativity more than anything. If we’re going to get going on this, we need to hear these ideas.”
Sympathising with volunteers and staff from every region over the challenges they face, which he described as “fighting fires every day”, he added: “You have got so many things to worry about. What can we do for you?
“You guys are carrying a lot on your shoulders. That’s what I hope we can provide, that support and resources.”
He added: “You deal with this every day. A lot of businesses do care about it but they don’t know what to do to help.”
Thanked for his work in establishing the Homewards project, the Prince nodded and replied: “We’re building something.”
Prince William is said to be playing an active role in developing further plans in his Duchy of Cornwall. Photo / Getty Images
The Prince is also said to be playing an active role in developing further plans for practical projects in his Duchy of Cornwall, after a first drive to provide 24 homes in Newquay announced earlier this year.
The event included a “fireside chat” with Homewards advocate Sabrina Hatton Cohen, and Chris Lynam from the Sheffield coalition who shared his story of childhood abuse, followed by PTSD from his time in the Royal Navy and his journey from being a “homeless heroin addict eating from bins” to one of Homewards’ “lived experience advocates” who works at The Archer Project.
The Prince told Dr Hatton Cohen and Mr Lynam they were “our resident experts”, emphasising the “importance of articulating and normalising” the experience of homelessness and saying: “Keep talking about it please. We have got to break the stigma.”
In a speech, the Prince said: “Homelessness is a complex societal issue, and one that touches the lives of far too many people in our society.
“I created Homewards because I wanted us to look at the issue of homelessness through a different lens: to inspire a movement to prevent people from ever experiencing homelessness in the first place.
“I know this will take a huge effort. And I know that demonstrating that homelessness is not an inevitable part of our society will take time.
“I have, though, been struck by the scale of the work that has been carried out since the launch of Homewards and I hope it is a powerful reminder to everyone of what can be achieved when we work together towards a shared goal.”
He added: “We are also working to change the way we all think about homelessness. Today, homelessness touches so many more than the men and women we sadly see on our streets.
“We will improve understanding about the different forms of homelessness, shifting perceptions and boosting optimism that it can be ended.
“As we gather here today in Lambeth, it’s an opportunity for us to take stock of all the hard work that has already been done over the last year as we work together to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated.
“The energy and enthusiasm that each individual and organisation is bringing to the programme, and to showing that it is possible to end homelessness in their local area, is inspiring and I know, together, we can do this.”
