Prince William returns to Bournemouth for Homewards Programme 

Photo credit: Royal Family on X

By the looks of it, he even arrived on the train

Prince William visited Bournemouth today to see how businesses are offering support for his Homewards programme.

He was joined by former star of BBC’s Dragon’s Den, No1 podcaster and entrepreneur Steven Bartlett at Pret-a-Manger in Bournemouth Square to hear about the company’s long-term commitment to tackling homelessness.

This includes offering more support, training and employment through The Pret Foundation’s Rising Stars scheme.

His Royal Highness and Steven Bartlett then joined a roundtable discussion with local and national businesses who have pledged their commitment to work with Homewards at AFC Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium.

Organisations represented at the discussion included BCP Council, a member of the Homelessness Partnership BCP.

Led by the Prince and the Royal Foundation, the Homewards campaign seeks to demonstrate it is possible to end homelessness making it rare, brief and unrepeated.

The Homelessness Partnership BCP has been working in partnership with the voluntary and community sector, people who have lived experience of homelessness and with local businesses. Through Homewards they are looking to grow the collaboration and incorporate some of the area’s biggest organisations.

AFC Bournemouth, The Pret Foundation, Bournemouth and Poole College, Sunseeker International, Lush, Dorset Chamber and the Bournemouth Town Centre BID, were also present at the roundtable discussion.

Cllr Kieron Wilson, Portfolio Holder for Housing and Regulatory Services, BCP Council said: “We welcome the commitments by local businesses to support the Homewards campaign today.

“BCP Council is committed to ending homelessness across the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area. Working in partnership with the voluntary and community sector, the community and with local businesses is absolutely key to this.

“Together we can prevent homelessness and make lasting change by focusing on providing accommodation as well as seeking training pathways and employment for those in need.

“Another way we can work with businesses is to prevent homelessness is by supporting with information and advice around supporting their employees who could be at risk of losing their home.”

In June, we launched @HomewardsUK, a 5 year programme to show it is possible to end homelessness

Today we’re in Bournemouth, one of the six #Homewards locations, to see how they’re getting on and exploring the role local businesses can play in supporting our mission pic.twitter.com/s4vYEnoj9i

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 7, 2023