The LEP Network

Support, Engage, Inspire

28/06/12

Dame Julia Cleverdon explains to the LEP Network how LEPs can get involved with the Prince's Charities

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales convened an interesting seminar in January bringing together all the Local Enterprise Partnerships Chairmen. The objective of the seminar was to ensure the Chairmen gained a greater understanding of the work of The Prince’s Charities particularly The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, Business in the Community, The Prince’s Regeneration Trust and The Prince’s Trust all of whose Chief Executives were present. An outcome from this gathering was that Chairmen wanted to see visually where The Prince’s Charities are working across the country. Specific maps of where this work is taking place and other relevant websites of The Prince’s Charities can be found on the LEP Network website (under policy information, on the Enterprise, Skills & Training, and Regeneration pages).

What are The Prince’s Charities?

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has played a major part in developing and convening partnerships tackling key social and environmental issues for nearly four decades. As Patron now of more than 450 organisations around the globe, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has also inspired and established “The Prince’s Charities”, a Group of seventeen independent charitable organisations of which he is both the active President and Founder of all but one. He has carried out hundreds of engagements in support of these charitable enterprises in the last five years, and together they now turn over more than £110 million per annum.

The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation receives donations and distributes the income of the social enterprises that he has developed over the years, while also encouraging the sustainability, collaboration and communication which underpin his charitable initiatives.

The task of The Prince’s Charities, inspired by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales values of harmony and sustainability, is to transform lives and build sustainable communities.

They are increasingly working collaboratively together to achieve a greater impact – tackling key social and sustainability issues in the UK and globally. This strategy is based on His Royal Highness’s belief that entrenched social problems need an integrated response and they, perhaps uniquely, can bring together the core expertise, skills and experience necessary to build partnerships across the public, private and voluntary sectors. The Prince’s Charities are therefore focused on those concerned with the Built Environment, with Young People and Education, and encouraging Responsible Business and Enterprise, while those relating to Global Sustainability issues underpin all our work and reflect his longstanding concerns.

Working in the Place

In 2005 and again in 2008, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales visited Burnley. Following these visits, and at the request of His Royal Highness, twelve of The Prince’s Charities came together to work with the public and private sectors in Burnley, together with other members of the voluntary sectors, to tackle of the entrenched social problems he had seen. The Prince of Wales felt that if his Charities could work together, then perhaps they could build a genuine partnership between the voluntary, public and private sectors.

An independent evaluation undertaken by the Cass Business School concluded that no other organisation or group of Charities could have played the same role or achieved as much as The Prince’s Charities. In particular, the convening power of His Royal Highness ensured a greater buy-in from stakeholders, supported by project co-ordinators within The Prince’s Charities who provided a strong focus.

Significant progress has been made, especially in relation to education and young people. Encouraged by the results of the work in Burnley, His Royal Highness has now asked The Prince’s Charities to work collaboratively with five further communities across the United Kingdom, all of which he has visited over the past six months, they include East Ayrshire, Burslem (Stoke-on-Trent), Tottenham, Redcar/Middlesborough and Llandovery.

It is when all of The Prince’s Charities are operating in a specific place that their power to inspire others and make a difference can be seen. Please watch our short film illustrating the important work of The Prince’s Charities.

Regeneration Summit

On the 16th May The Prince’s Charities held a Regeneration Summit on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee visit to Burnley by Her Majesty The Queen, His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

The Summit took place in Victoria Mill in the Weavers’ Triangle, Burnley, which is a historic canal-side area that was once one of the most important cotton-weaving areas in the world. The building is now owned by Burnley Council and is being restored to house a University Technical College.

The Summit was attended by over a hundred people including Chief Executives from local authorities, local businesses and Local Enterprise Partnerships, developers and housebuilders, community leaders and entrepreneurs, education and health professionals and others from the five areas The Prince’s Charities are focussing their collaborative action.

The key objective of the Regeneration Summit was to share the experience and challenges of these six places where The Prince’s Charities are working as a catalyst to transform lives and build sustainable communities and to develop mutual learning and share best practice.

Her Majesty The Queen gave a short speech to the summit attendees praising the work of The Prince’s Charities which can be seen here.

Find out more

Further information can be found online at www.princeofwales.gov.uk which illustrates how the Prince’s Charities fit together and provides an insight of some of their priorities.

Contact Details

The Prince’s Charities Office, Clarence House

Sarah Hardy Tel: 020 7024 5713

If you are interested in Education and Young People please see: