A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the annual Prince's Trust Celebrate Success Awards, 2015

It really is unbelievable of them to do it and bring their remarkable sparking wit and repartee, totally unscripted, it makes the whole difference. Not only that, but it's quite interesting to think that they were actually born at the same time that I started the Trust, which really must have been only 20 years ago! Anyway, it is wonderful of them to do that and all the celebrity ambassadors, and so many others who've been involved in this Celebrate Success programme for so long. 

I'm also so glad to welcome the President of Malta because she, for some amazing reason, has taken a great interest in what my Trust can do, so now I'm hope my new Prince's Trust International can help in Malta and also respond to all sorts of other requests from around the world for the kind of experience that the Trust has. So many people are now beginning to realise that maybe it can offer something, particularly for so many high levels of youth unemployment in different parts of the world.   



Ladies and Gentlemen, my Trust, as I hope some of you know, supports 58,000 disadvantaged young people every year to overcome literally unimaginable odds, as we've heard something about this afternoon, and personally I couldn't be more proud that since 1976 we have supported some 828,000 (at the last count!) vulnerable young people to turn their lives around.  Actually it's a great pity we can't fit them all in somewhere, just to remind people of how many young people's lives have been turned round. 



However, on a day like this, it's important not forget the hundreds of thousands of young people out there, who urgently need our help. We do our best with the support of so many sponsors, and goodness knows what else! So an occasion like this it provides a special opportunity to thank all our volunteers, and we have something like 6-7000 volunteers, all round this country, who do make a fantastic difference and provide advice, support and mentoring and so on. And all the others, the supporters, the partners, the different organisations, and colleges, and everybody else we work with, many of whom I think are here today. Your dedication and hard work is absolutely crucial to being able to achieve what we can do in any way whatsoever.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, by working together we are able to give young people the skills and there's a huge crying need for those skills and the confidence needed to create a better future for themselves and of course their families.  



In 2015, this year, my Trust is celebrating two key milestones:

Firstly, this year marks the fact that the Football Initiative will have helped around 25,000 young people.  I again would like to use this opportunity to thank the Premier League and The Professional Footballers Association, who for the last eighteen years have supported my Trust so enthusiastically. And, of course, as we just heard, Quej Kashilembo is a leading example of what has been achieved through this partnership. 



Secondly, this year also marks twenty-five years since my Trust launched its Team programme and since 1990, something like 175,000 young people have taken part and transformed their lives for the better. Again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Barclays, our largest partner for the programme, who actually make it possible for us to continue to get the most disadvantaged young people into work, education or training. 



Again, as you can imagine, the contribution of our wonderful celebrity ambassadors who help us throughout the year, whether in the regions, or here in London, to raise all the vital funds and awareness needed to keep my Trust running. What they do is fantastic considering that we have to raise now over a million pounds a week this year it will be something like 66/67 million pounds that we need to raise! So Ladies and Gentlemen, I am particularly proud of all my younger ambassadors, all those who've been through the Trust programme, come out the other end, and want to give back something, because they've got their confidence and self-esteem. I'm proud particularly of those who, in some form, have gone on to achieve stardom. When you think of people like Idris Elba who made the film about Nelson Mandela; there's Paloma Faith for instance, who is a Brits award winner; David Oyelowo who I remember meeting years ago, who has just played the part of Martin Luther King in the film Selma; there's a group called Snow Patrol, which I'm sure many of you know about hugely successful band yes they were started by the Prince's Trust! And then there's somebody called Dynamo, an extraordinary musician, so these are some of the people who've gone on to be real stars, of whom I could not be more proud.    



And finally Ladies and Gentlemen, none of this would be possible without all the generous sterling supporters as I've just said we have to raise a huge amount of money to make all this happen and my special thanks go to Samsung, who have been around helping us for quite some time now and in addition to sponsoring the Celebrate Success Awards, Samsung is also working closely with my Trust to enhance the lives of young people ensuring that our most vulnerable young people have the key digital and technology skills to help them move into an industry that is growing every day. 



And of course the other Award sponsors who are so loyal, and have helped make today such a success:  Hewlett Packard, H.S.B.C lots of caring banks to work with, I promise you! All these people - Mappin and Webb, Morgan Stanley, Novae and R.B.S. R.B.S has been there to support us literally the last ten years, and has never faltered for a moment in the huge difference they can make. 



So Ladies and Gentlemen, when I set up my Trust in 1976, little did I think I'd still be around to find that actually we're about to celebrate our 40th anniversary next year! So hope we can make it a special occasion, just to remind you of the fantastic difference that can be made turning people's lives around. We now have a huge army of very nearly a million people for whom I hope we've made some difference. So when I finally shuffle off, I know I can leave you all, I hope, in a better position to make a huge difference, not only to our county, but to other countries around the world. Once again my warmest congratulations go to all the remarkable finalists! Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen.