The Prince of Wales has apologized for his “hoarse” voice after the England men’s football team reached the Euro semi-finals.
The prince told guests at the events that he “had a hoarse voice after last night” as he gushed over a “quite goal” after England’s 2-1 victory over the Netherlands.
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He spent more than an hour at an event in Brixton, celebrating one year of his Homewards project and asking industry experts to tell him how best to help.
The project is being trialled in six areas across the UK, where local experts are being encouraged to work together to find solutions that will ultimately eradicate homelessness in all its forms.
The Prince urged event guests, drawn from the charity sector, local authorities and those who have experienced homelessness, to use Homewards as their “resources and support” and asked them to think “creatively” about how the project can to help .
In a speech, he acknowledged that “demonstrating that homelessness is not an inevitable part of our society will take time”, but said the progress made by Homewards in the first of its five years is a “powerful reminder to everyone of what can be achieved when we work together towards a common goal.”
He arrived at the event in a small landscaped courtyard in Brixton and walked through six stands representing the project’s six sites – Newport; the towns of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch in Dorset; Lambeth; Belfast; Aberdeen; and Sheffield – where three or four local experts were on hand to speak to him.
The Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch (BPC) team raised the topic of football, knowing that the Prince is president of the FA and an avid fan of Aston Villa – the club of top goalscorer Ollie Watkins.
“I have a hoarse voice from last night!” the Prince said.
“I had a little moment where I thought ‘…he can do that’!? I was wishing he would go in. It was an incredible goal.”
Later, when someone congratulated him on the result, he looked delighted but laughed: “I didn’t play last night, I can’t take credit for that.”
All six conversations focused on the importance of hearing from experts who already work in the homelessness sector and hearing how each of their different approaches was adapted to local issues.
“So many people are doing brilliant work and have been doing so for years and years,” he told the Sheffield team. “We want you to feel that this [Homewards] it’s a resource and support for you.”
He joked that establishing six areas encouraged “a little bit of competition,” adding, “I love it because it brings the best out of everyone.”
Speaking to the Lambeth team, including Abdoul Ndambi from Spiral Skills, which connects young people with the people and services they need to provide them with a better future, the Prince spoke of his concerns for people slipping through the cracks in society.
“We need to make sure we don’t neglect them,” he said. Find families in advance and work with them.
“If you are a parent alone, without a village, you are doomed to fail.”
In a specific message to young people who grew up without a safe support network, he added: “Please tell them we care about them too.”
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Expanding on the topic under discussion in front of the Northern Ireland stand, the Prince said: “What worries me is how can we recreate that family love and support?
“We need that creativity more than anything,” he said. “If we want to keep this going, we need to listen to these ideas.”
Sympathizing with volunteers and staff from all regions for the challenges they face, which he described as “fighting fires every day”, he said: “You have so many things to worry about. What can we do for you?”
“You are carrying a lot on your shoulders. That’s what I hope we can offer, that support and resources.”
He added: “You deal with this every day. Many companies worry about this, but don’t know what to do to help.”
Thankful for his work in establishing the Homewards project, the Prince nodded and replied, “We are building something.”
The Prince is also said to be playing an active role in developing new plans for practical projects in his Duchy of Cornwall, following a first initiative to provide 24 homes in Newquay announced earlier this year.
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The event included a “fireside chat” between Homewards advocate Sabrina Hatton Cohen and Chris Lynam of the Sheffield coalition, who shared her story of child abuse, followed by PTSD from her time in the Navy and her journey from being a “heroin-addicted homeless man eating out of trash cans” to one of Homewards’ “lived experience advocates” who works at The Archer Project.
The Prince told Dr Hatton Cohen and Mr Lynam that they were “our resident experts”, emphasizing the “importance of articulating and normalising” the experience of homelessness and saying: “Keep talking about this, please.
In a speech, the Prince said: “Homelessness is a complex social issue that affects the lives of too many people in our society.
“However, I truly believe this can end.
“I created Homewards because I wanted us to look at homelessness through a different lens: to inspire a movement to prevent people from ever experiencing homelessness in the first place.
“I know this will require a huge effort. And I know that demonstrating that homelessness is not an inevitable part of our society will take time.
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“However, I have been impressed by the scale of work that has been achieved since the launch of Homewards and I hope it will be a powerful reminder to everyone of what can be achieved when we work together towards a common goal.”
He added: “We are also working to change the way we all think about homelessness. Today, homelessness affects much more than the men and women we unfortunately see on our streets.
“We will improve understanding of the different forms of homelessness, changing perceptions and increasing optimism that it can end.
“As we gather here in Lambeth today, it is an opportunity to take stock of all the hard work that has already been done over the last year, as we work together to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeatable.
“But there is still a lot of work to do.
“The energy and enthusiasm that each individual and organization brings to the program and to show that it is possible to end homelessness in their local area is inspiring and I know that together we can do this.”
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
