Prince William to celebrate Princess Diana's birthday today with special plans
The Prince of Wales will begin the day by meeting with representatives of all six UK regions (Sheffield, Newport in South Wales, Aberdeen in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Lambeth in London) picked as pilot test areas for the projects.
This will be followed by a visit to a Sheffield school to witness the impact of an intervention model called 'Upstream' which aims to detect people at risk of homelessness and offer them premature support. The model is based on the Geelong Project in Australia. The day will mark some of the first residents moving into and officially being beneficiaries of Sheffield's Innovative Housing project. Prince William's open letter
Ahead of his planned visit on July 1, the prince recently shared an open letter addressed to representatives of the six pilot test regions by writing, 'Your experiences are what makes Homewards unique and powerful. We can harness our collective capabilities, expertise, and resources towards this common cause. I am immensely proud to say that your collective effort has already allowed us to achieve lasting impact."
"I am confident we can lead and inspire understanding, empathy, and optimism that homelessness can be ended," he added. 'Focus is also important, and you have identified the groups particularly at risk of homelessness in your locations to drive solutions that show it is possible to prevent their homelessness.'
"While visiting the six locations, I have been inspired by the motivation, creativity, and expertise that is embodied in each location and the tangible difference you are making for some of society's most vulnerable,' he wrote.
He signed off the letter by writing, 'Keep going!' What is the Homewards Initiative?
Launched in 2023, the Homewards Initiative is an effort undertaken by Prince William and The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales which aims 'to demonstrate that it's possible to end homelessness – making it rare, brief, and unrepeated'.
According to its official website, it is 'a transformative 5-year program, locally-led in 6 flagship locations around the UK, providing up to £500,000 of funding for each location, bringing together dozens of partner organizations, from frontline homelessness charities to big businesses and employing a local Homewards lead for each location.'
The cause is inspired by shelter visits undertaken by the prince along with his brother Prince Harry during their mother's noted charitable efforts and hence holds a deep personal relevance for him. The initiative recently secured a financial investment of $500 million from Lloyds Bank to support the effort of constructing about 100 affordable housing projects across six regions.
'During my time at Shelter — and before — we have seen other joined-up initiatives that have sought to tackle homelessness and those have been valuable. But they have, in the main, focused on crisis intervention. We need to get out of this idea that crisis intervention is going to end homelessness. That's because the primary causes of homelessness are systemic,' said Polly Neate, former CEO of U.K. charities Shelter and Women's Aid, to PEOPLE.
'Having somebody like Prince William being very clear that it is possible to prevent homelessness, it is possible to end it, is hugely impactful and we are already seeing that,' she adds. By Stuti Gupta
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