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30.06.25

Homewards convenes the private sector and works to shift the narrative on homelessness in second year 

After the first year of building the foundations of the programme, Homewards is now firmly in delivery mode – and this is evident when reflecting upon the progress made over the second year of the programme.  

This progress has been made through a range of initiatives across homes, funding and finance, data, early intervention, employment and reframing the narrative around homelessness and inspire optimism that it can be ended.  

However, these initiatives couldn’t be made possible without collaboration, and the private sector has worked  to support our locations to deliver real impact. Over our second year of progress, we welcomed a range of new Activators to the Homewards Partnership – each with commitments to support the delivery of the Programme across all six locations:  

  • Blue Light Card welcomed the estimated 60,000 working in the homelessness sector to their list of recipients for the discount card. Since the partnership launch in September 2024, over £500,000 has been saved by the UK homelessness workforce. 
  • Hays is supporting to secure commitments for employment and training opportunities, and supporting this work by sharing data-driven insights to address employment barriers. This partnership builds on the youth employability programme, Project Flourish – created in 2022 by Hays and EveryYouth. Since the launch in March 2025, new employment opportunities have been established with partners including Specsavers and Altrad. 

In addition to building out our Activator partnerships, we’ve been focused on our mission to inspire understanding, empathy and optimism that homelessness can be ended. Year two of the programme saw major public efforts to shift the narrative on homelessness in the UK – and beyond: 

  • Homewards was the focus of a two-part ITV documentary series, Prince William: We Can End Homelessness. Offering viewers an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at year one of the programme and highlighted different journeys of people at risk of homelessness, or who have lived experience, the documentary reached over 3 million households in the UK alone.  
  • Homewards opened an art exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery in collaboration with Eleven Eleven Foundation entitled Homelessness: Reframed. This ground-breaking exhibition featured work by artists with lived experience of homelessness, as well as works created by children and young people at a series of creative workshops held across the Homewards locations. The exhibition was visited by over 47,000 people over the six-week run. 
  • Locally, work has been underway to develop accessible, free local image libraries in partnership with the Centre for Homelessness Impact, as well as a new guide on writing and speaking about homelessness to broaden understanding, optimism and empathy. 

With the second year establishing the programme well and truly in delivery, the third year of Homewards will continue to build on this momentum to deliver wider impact across the six locations, as we work towards demonstrating that it’s possible to end homelessness – making it rare, brief, and unrepeated.