The Prince of Wales posed for selfies with crowds as he welcomed an international delegation to Bournemouth, where they are observing the work of his charity dedicated to tackling youth homelessness.
Prince William launched his Homewards project in 2023, an initiative designed to create a blueprint for eradicating homelessness in all its forms, with the stated aim of making it "rare, brief and unrepeated".
Six locations were selected for the Homewards programme: Newport, Lambeth, Belfast, Aberdeen, Sheffield, and the three neighbouring Dorset towns of Poole, Bournemouth, and Christchurch (BCP).
Each site focuses on delivering bespoke solutions to address local homelessness challenges. The BCP operation, in particular, is considered a flagship centre, drawing significant interest from abroad.
Delegates from Australia, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Finland have travelled to the UK specifically to visit the BCP project.
This campaign represents a major long-term focus for the prince, who has often spoken about how childhood visits to shelters with his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, left a deep and lasting impression, inspiring his current work.
Prince William met the international representatives, who included figures from the third sector, education, and local government, at Bournemouth Pier, where they also engaged with leaders of local services.
They then joined a session of the newly formed BCP Youth Homelessness Board to learn how different sectors are working together to prevent young people reaching crisis points.
And they will look at how these can be scaled across the UK and to the delegates’ home countries.
Melanie Redman, president of A Way Home Canada, said: “We are here to learn about the success of other models and systems that are happening here in Bournemouth.
“For it’s fantastic to see the prince throw his support behind something so important because young people deserve better outcomes, they deserve to thrive, and to see the Royal Foundation so involved in this and at such a personal level is truly exciting and will hopefully ignite more efforts in Canada.”
Frances Beecher, chairwoman of the BCP Council’s Youth Homelessness Board, said after meeting William: “He is totally engaged.
“I think homelessness is very important to him and dear to his heart.
“What is really clear is he wants to do whatever he can to ensure the issue is centralised in all the different areas and people come together to solve youth homelessness.
“What the support means for Homewards is it gives us a way to bring all the different partners to the table and a way of creating systemic change, it’s about a system where young people do not fall through the gaps.”
Theo, a young member of Homewards’ National Co-Production Group who has used their own experience to help the charity focus its work, also met the prince and said: “He is very engaged, he was very keen to hear how the project is going and saying how fundamental and key lived experience is and how he can’t do the project by himself and how he needs all of our support and to work together.
“It was amazing, he was very easy to talk to and welcoming.”
As William left the pier, a large crowd had gathered to wave him off and the prince stopped briefly to take a selfie with a family of well-wishers.
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