The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Centrepoint partner to give young people experiencing homelessness life-changing skills and opportunities
National youth charities The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) and Centrepoint have launched an ambitious partnership to give young people experiencing homelessness the chance to gain life-changing skills for their future.
The partnership, made possible by generous support from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and The Julia Rausing Trust, has seen eight participants successfully achieve a Bronze DofE Award in a pilot programme at Centrepoint Bradford. Following the success of the pilot, Centrepoint has now expanded its DofE provision to its centre in Barnsley, where four participants are currently enrolled.
Centrepoint is the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity. Together with its partners, the charity supports over 15,000 young people every year with safe housing, one-to-one support, and access to counselling, education, training and employment opportunities.
Through DofE – the UK’s leading youth development programme – young people living in Centrepoint accommodation now have the opportunity to develop essential lifelong skills, whilst building their confidence and connections with the community. Young people in Bradford and Barnsley have done a variety of activities for their DofE sections including learning employability skills, longboarding, music appreciation, volunteering by cleaning and restoring a Girlguiding and Scouts campsite, as well as their DofE expedition.
Doing DofE and achieving an Award can be a game-changer for young people – strengthening their resilience and helping their job or further education applications. Cobey, 21, who is now living independently after being supported by Centrepoint for 3 years, completed his Bronze DofE Award through Centrepoint’s Bradford centre. Reflecting on his experience Cobey said: “My future plans are all around working in sound engineering, using the equipment that I’m using now and working with other people. At the moment, what I’m needing is more practical stuff and not just the theory, so having the opportunity to work with Yorkshire Housing on a podcast for the DofE Award has really helped me.
“I’ve also been able to continue volunteering on the care leavers council for children’s services. I’ve been doing that for a long time now and I get to interview social workers, hirers and foster carers and even people higher up. We get to do things like have big meetings on what we think might be good for children in care and they take what we say and see if they can make that change. The DofE expedition really topped things off though. We had to plan the route of where we would be walking and using the map of the area. I have to say I definitely enjoyed that because that’s my kind of fun!”
Ruth Marvel OBE, CEO at The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, said: “At The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, we want to ensure that no young person misses out on a life-changing DofE experience. As a charity, we set ourselves an ambitious target of reaching 1.6 million young people by Spring 2026, including young people facing marginalisation or financial barriers, and our partnership with Centrepoint is key to helping us do this.
“It’s been incredible to see the transformative impact the DofE has had on participants in Bradford and Barnsley – giving them the chance to try something new, challenge themselves, grow in confidence and gain vital skills for their future. As we head into our 70th year in 2026 we hope to reach even more young people. With rising mental health issues, disruption to education and deepening inequalities, access to high-quality enrichment like the DofE has never been so important.”
Ed Tytherleigh, Director of Services at Centrepoint, said: “Centrepoint is committed to ending youth homelessness and a big part of this is ensuring that young people not only have a safe place to call home, but are also on a path to sustainable employment. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award gives young people the opportunity to gain real-world experiences and skills vital for employment, which is why were delighted when the team approached us about rolling out a pilot programme at our Bradford services.
“The pilot has been a huge success, and it has been an absolute pleasure to hear about what the young people have got up to and achieved. Each participant brought their own stories, struggles, and experiences, and they worked incredibly hard to earn their DofE Award. We’re proud of every single one of them and look forward to building on this success as our partnership expands to our Barnsley services.”
To do their DofE, young people aged 14-24 choose activities in four sections: improving a Physical and Skills activity, Volunteering for a cause of their choice, and completing a demanding Expedition. Along the way they have fun, grow in resilience and self-belief, discover new talents and passions, and learn practical skills to help them in future – while working towards a highly respected Award.
In 2024/25, more than 342,000 young people started their DofE, with participants giving more than 5.2 million hours of volunteering in their communities. With the support of its passionate funders and partners, the charity has launched ambitious projects to fund more schools and community organisations in the UK’s most deprived areas to offer the DofE. The charity has also expanded its work in prisons and young offender institutions and supported more young people with additional needs and disabilities to start their DofE. Visit DofE.org/about to find out more.
