Prince William joins panel with Steven Bartlett and Former Prime Minister to mark second year of Homewards

To mark the second year of progress, Prince William joined local Coalition members from across all six Homewards locations alongside other key partners and supporters from the private, public, and third sectors for a special event in Sheffield.

Entitled, ‘Homewards: Delivering Change Together’, this anniversary event spotlighted the impact of the Homewards programme – by showcasing tangible examples of its collective work from the past year, sharing learnings on how to tackle key challenges, and scale successes into the third year of the programme, and beyond.

In support of the positive impact made by Homewards so far and to build momentum for the important work ahead, His Royal Highness joined Homewards Advocate, Steven Bartlett, and Former Prime Minster and The Multibank Founder and President, The Rt Honourable Gordon Brown in a panel discussion.

Speaking to the true power of cross-sector partnership to create a real difference both locally and nationally, the panel focused on what we can achieve when working together in our shared mission to demonstrate that it is possible to end homelessness in the UK – making it rare, brief, and unrepeated.

Prince William also joined members of the Homewards National Lived Experience Group – people with lived experience of homelessness who are helping us to shape and develop the programme – and partners of the Homewards Sheffield Innovative Housing Projects who have been vital in securing and furnishing homes for families locally.

Following the panel discussion featuring our special guest speakers, this anniversary event continued with enthusiasm with a lineup of key experts and voices from the homelessness sector both in the UK and Europe, to share learnings and kickstart discussion among attendees. With a warm welcome from Homewards Advocate David Duke, followed by expert guidance offered from major names such as FEANTSA, PwC, HBD, Lloyds Banking Group, among others, this portion was closed out by a moving spoken word performance by poet, Surfing Sofas.

As the day progressed, the attendees split into a variety of breakout sessions hosted by the Homewards team and programme supporters, focusing on key programme delivery across employment, data, homes, early intervention, and changing the narrative. The sessions explored our next steps to best maximise our collective impact, continuing to pursue innovative approaches to homelessness, and the power of forging partnerships at a local and national level to create wider impact.

This array of speakers and sessions truly demonstrated that whilst homelessness is always about homes, it’s not simply about homes. This conference style event has highlighted the importance of the key work taking place to set people up with the support systems they need to not only no longer experience, or be at risk of, homelessness – but thrive.