The King welcomes the 2023 winners of The Prince’s Trust Awards to Buckingham Palace

The event at Buckingham Palace followed the awards ceremony on 16th May at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The King hosted the reception to continue celebrating the award winners’ amazing achievements.

The Prince’s Trust Awards recognise young people who have succeeded against the odds, improved their chances in life and had a positive impact on their local community.

The eight UK Award categories are: Young Change Maker, Community Impact Award, Rising Star Award, Breakthrough Award, Education Achiever Award, Enterprise Award, Young Achiever Award and Volunteer of the Year.

The three International Award categories are: Global Young Achiever, Amal Clooney Woman’s Empowerment Award, The Prince's Trust Group Sustainability Award.

Among them was Joanna Drewett, 24 from South Manchester won the Homesense Young Achiever of the Year award. Joanna was admitted to a psychiatric hospital at 15, which disrupted her education and she finished school with just three GCSEs. She didn’t feel as though she would be able to get a meaningful job and felt completely hopeless. All this changed when she reached out to The Prince’s Trust and took part in the Team programme, a twelve-week self-development course.  

The ceremony also honoured the Global Young Achiever Award, which recognises the outstanding achievement of a young person on a Prince’s Trust programme around the world. British Vogue Editor-in-Chief, Edward Enniful OBE presented the award to Faith from Nigeria and attended today’s reception. Faith left school at 14 to work and support her family. With no qualifications beyond her school certificate, Faith struggled to earn enough to meet their needs in her home city of Lagos.

After taking part in the programme with Prince’s Trust International, Faith immediately landed a job that trebled her income. As an events co-ordinator with a catering company, she now regularly leads teams of university graduates.

Read more about all the winners

Joining His Majesty at the event was Prince’s Trust Ambassadors, Ant and Dec, who spoke about the previous day’s awards.

Among the guests were also a number the charity’s celebrity supporters, including, Stanley Tucci, Stephen Graham, Edward Enninful, Charlotte Tilbury, Nicola Adams, and Nile Rogers.

The Prince’s Trust was founded by the then Prince of Wales in 1976, and since then they have helped over a million young people across the UK. The Trust is now present in over 20 countries, helping young people around the world to build meaningful and sustainable careers.