POSTED: 29/06/2023
Great Places has taken part in an event hosted by Prince William to launch his UK-wide homelessness programme in Sheffield.
Sheffield has been selected as one of six flagship locations across the UK to benefit from the programme, with Prince William paying the city a visit on Tuesday 27 June as part of the programme’s launch. Funding will help Sheffield City Council and its partners, including Great Places, to go that step further in supporting those who don’t have a stable home.
Homewards is a five-year locally led programme launched by the HRH Prince of Wales and The Royal Foundation, which will demonstrate that together it is possible to end homelessness, making it rare, brief, and unrepeated.
Sheffield was selected following Sheffield City Council’s submission of an Expression of Interest to the Royal Foundation. One of the main considerations of the Royal Foundation’s selection was for chosen locations to be already proactively engaged in tackling homelessness with a vision to end it.
One of the things they noted upon in their feedback was the strong cross-sector collaboration already in place, and the wider picture of challenges around homelessness that cause it or amplify it being fully addressed. This partnership with Homewards will empower this work to go further, ensuring the Council and its partners can strive to achieve the vision of putting an end to homelessness in the city.
Great Places was the only Registered Housing Provider selected to be involved in the launch event at Reach up Youth, Burngreave, Sheffield, to announce the partnership. Our involvement is based on our work at the Pat Midgley Community Hub to build personal resilience to help prevent homelessness. This work is focused on providing homes for people, often with serious housing needs, who we work with to ensure they can manage their homes and tenancies, with tailored levels of support to empower them to get on with their lives and stay in secure accommodation.
Raymond Kinsella, Head of Neighbourhoods for the East Region said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been selected as part of the Sheffield partnership for the Homewards programme.
“Through our work with Housing First, we take pride in being at the forefront of work tackling homelessness across Greater Manchester and deliver a rough sleepers accommodation programme alongside Sheffield City Council so it is a highly positive step to be a part of this project that will enable us to help front this work in Sheffield.
“Homewards promises to take a transformative approach to the issue with collaboration at its heart. Sheffield, alongside the five other flagship locations, will be given new space, tools and relationships to maximise this potential and showcase what can be achieved through the collective effort to prevent homelessness in their areas.
“We are looking forward to getting started and seeing what a positive difference we can make.”
You can read more about Homewards here.
