The prince has long worked to fight against homelessness

The Prince of Wales travelled to Bournemouth yesterday, where he spoke with teenagers at Bourne Academy about practical housing education delivered through workshops run by Shelter, a partner organisation in his Homewards initiative.

Sitting at an outdoor camp setting, William listened as students shared their experiences learning about tenancy rights and related matters.

The future King reassured pupils that the sessions were designed to prepare rather than alarm them.

“So then, you’ve got a lot on anyway, there’s a lot of things to think about and worry about, it’s not to add more burden to your plate, but hopefully it’s to start thinking about it before it becomes an issue,” he said.

Prince William met with students to teach them housing education in Bournemouth

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“That expression ‘forearmed is forewarned’ or whatever they say – that’s the kind of idea here.”

William asked the gathered students whether the workshops gave them confidence, receiving an enthusiastic affirmative response from those assembled near the academy.

Scarlett Gobb, an 18-year-old student, reflected on her encounter with the prince and the value of such initiatives.

“Normally, schools are really academic based and I think having something like this, it’s so good because there’s so much more to the world than being smart,” she said.

“And I feel like (being) academic is one thing, but I feel like having more common sense and knowing more about the real world is so much more important than any other knowledge that you can get.”

Prince William sat and listened as the students spoke on their own experiences

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The prince established Homewards in 2023 with the ambition of creating a framework to eliminate homelessness in all its forms, with the goal of making it “rare, brief and unrepeated”.

The programme operates across six locations: Newport, Lambeth, Belfast, Aberdeen, Sheffield, and the combined Dorset area of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch, each developing tailored approaches to local housing challenges.

Representatives from Australia, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland joined William throughout the day as part of a fact-finding mission examining the Homewards programme’s work in the coastal town.

Prince William attended Bournemouth pier earlier in the day

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Earlier, the prince and the international delegation visited Bournemouth pier, where they met with leaders of local services before attending a session of the newly established BCP Youth Homelessness Board, which brings together different sectors to prevent young people reaching crisis point.

William also held discussions with homelessness charities at various stages of rolling out Upstream, an early-intervention survey developed to identify pupils at risk of losing their homes, currently being introduced at Bourne Academy by Centrepoint.