Royal Magic Sparkle

Yesterday evening I was invited to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queens official residence in Scotland for a Princes Trust presentation on excluded young people, and to be presented to HRH The Prince of Wales.

These things can be a bit posh for my taste, and indeed the number of "high heidens" was great, with Directors of this, Chief Executives of Colleges, and Councils, etc across Scotland. But two people impressed me most:

Sean, the young Able Seaman, an ambassador for Princes Trust who at 24 had seen his life turnaround with the help of the programme, identical to the ones we run at CCH - with a great speech and at ease (at least on the surface as he later told us!) with all these guests. His story was inspirational and encouraging for all those of us working away trying to make a difference.

The other was HRH the Prince of Wales, who set up the Trusts 25 years ago to help young people 16-25 across the UK who faced disadvantage. His vision has made a difference. He expressed delight that the programme he launched in CCH in 1989 was still going strong. A little dusting of Royal magic sparkle which gave recognition to the years of hard work and challenges. In a world of cuts, and performance monitoring and targets, and numbers it can be hard enough sometimes to remember its about people, never mind get a sense of recognition. Last night that changed.