In Bournemouth, the Prince of Wales met with national and local businesses, including Pret a Manger, who are pledging their support to His Royal Highness’ Homewards programme, a transformative five-year, locally-led programme that aims to end homelessness in six flagship locations across the UK.
His Royal Highness’ engagements spotlighted the vital role that the business sector can play in preventing and tackling homelessness. During his time in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP), The Prince met with representatives from eight national and local businesses to hear about the pledges they are making as part of their support for Homewards and its mission to end homelessness.
These milestone pledges include a commitment by Homewards ‘Activator’ Pret A Manger to expand The Pret Foundation’s Rising Stars programme, which will support at least 500 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness into jobs at Pret’s UK’s shops over the next five years, including in Homewards locations where Pret has a presence.
Further commitments from organisations including AFC Bournemouth will involve the expansion of community outreach programmes, as well as new education and employment opportunities.
His Royal Highness’ visit follows on from the launch of Homewards in June. Spearheaded by The Prince and The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales. In addition to delivering real and tangible impact in each local area, Homewards will use findings from each location to create a tried and tested model that can be adopted by other areas of the UK and internationally. The programme will also focus on improving understanding around the issue of homelessness and boosting optimism that it can be ended – making it rare, brief and unrepeated.
