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Prince & Princess of Wales

Prince William asks Centrepoint youth “Am I Famous?”

As Patron of Centrepoint, the Duke of Cambridge visited with homeless youth at a hostel in Northolt, west London on Tuesday.

While at the hostel, Prince William sat down with youth who have been supported by Centrepoint to play a game of Who Am I?. Sticking the blue note on his forehead, Prince William asked his partner in the game, Sherihan Sharif, questions like “Am I a male in show business?”, “Am I a sportsman?”, “Am I a famous footballer player?” and “Do I do other things apart from football?”. With only two more questions, the Duke guessed his identity- David Beckham.

Sharif, who is now a university student, was Usain Bolt.

The young people in the room were there for a presentation skills session that helps formerly homeless youth get ready for interviews. Prince William, who is no newbie to interviews agreed with the pressure they will face nothing saying that “interviews are always daunting.”

A new national helpline from Centrepoint is to launch next month and the Duke of Cambridge is expected to be taking the first call.

The Duke was shown around by chief executive of Centrepoint, Seyi Obakin. The two have teamed up together before, in 2009, when they slept outside in sleeping bags by Blackfriars bridge to raise awareness of the charity.

 

Obakin spoke to The Express saying: “Right now the biggest challenge that young people have is that they actually don’t know what to do when they’re homeless.

“That can mean that they start a downward spiral, which means before anyone actually reaches them to give them any kind of help, things have really gone awry.”

Adding on that the helpline will act as “prevention” to the issues homelessness can bring: “We know that nationally 150,000 young people approach local authorities seeking help for homelessness every year. And we also know that a whole lot of them are turned away without any support at all.

“So one of the things the helpline is going to be able to do is these young people will be able to reach out to the helpline. I’m not saying we’re going to get 150,000 calls next month, but that’s the scale we’re talking about.”

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