Prince Harry will visit a young person’s hostel in North London on 26th January, to meet young people who are engaged with The Running Charity programme, as part of his continued focus on exploring how sport can be used to help vulnerable young people and communities.
The Running Charity is the UK’s first running-orientated programme for homeless and vulnerable young people. The programme engages young people in regular running-based activities with qualified fitness professionals as coaches, harnessing the underlying benefits of the sport as a powerful motivational tool. The Running Charity partners with existing homeless charities, providing a diverse training programme that ensures high levels of engagement between the participants and coaches. Through sport, The Running Charity is able to encourage young people to set positive goals, to speak and engage with each other in a positive way, develop a healthier lifestyle and establish a positive mindset. The aim throughout the programme is that as their confidence increases, participants become more resilient and optimistic about what they can achieve in life.
During his visit, Prince Harry will meet staff at the hostel and the charity to hear about the benefits of the programme for the young people involved. He will speak directly to Claude, a programme mentor who has himself experienced homelessness and who has direct experience of using sport as a way to build skills to improve his circumstances. Prince Harry will then meet some of the current beneficiaries along with recent graduates of The Running Charity’s programme, to hear from them directly what benefit it brings.
This is one of a series of visits Prince Harry is undertaking to develop his understanding of the sport for social development sector and use his position to support the great work that is already taking place across the country – to ensure that community sports groups continue to play a key role in improving the life chances of disadvantaged young people.
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