William and Kate dodge rain showers to meet community centre supporters

The Prince and Princess of Wales leave following their visit to The Commons in South Belfast, a project that will transform a church at the heart of the diverse and vibrant Ormeau Road community into a self-sustaining community centre for all (Aaron Chown/PA)PA WireClaudia Savage2 minutes agoThe Prince and Princess of Wales have toured a new community facility in south Belfast at the beginning of a one-day visit to Northern Ireland.

William and Kate visited The Commons, a project to transform a church on the Ormeau Road into a community centre.

They were greeted by deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly, Belfast mayor Róis-Máire Donnelly and South Belfast MP Claire Hanna, who is also SDLP leader.

The Prince of Wales speaks to deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly (Brian Lawless/PA)PA WireShaking hands in the rain, Ms Little-Pengelly joked to Prince William that the weather “wasn’t playing ball”.

They spoke with David and Jill Hines, who are directors of The Commons, before being taken on a tour of the regenerated church building.

A number of local craft groups were set up inside, including Flourish and Sew-cial Circle.

The prince and princess met with the chairs of the New Employment Opportunities Network (Neon), an initiative launched by the Royal Foundation under William’s Homewards programme, which aims to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated.

Neon aims to bring together businesses with the community and voluntary sector to prevent homelessness by supporting employment.

The visit had a particular focus on care leavers, as in Northern Ireland almost two-thirds of care leavers experienced homelessness at some point after leaving care, with 42% doing so within their first two years.

The Prince and Princess of Wales during a visit to Belfast (Aaron Chown/PA)PA Wire“If nothing else from Homewards we need to make sure that point comes across very strongly, that every region of the UK has massively different ways and problems to tackle homelessness,” William said when speaking with Neon chairs from across the UK.

“And everyone thinks it’s just a one size fits all problem, it’s just ‘more houses that’ll fix it’, and it’s not, so it’s really important that we flesh out kind of the different aspects of homelessness.”

He added: “I always think that employers want to help, they just sometimes don’t know how to help, and you guys are unlocking those tools.”

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Stephen, a care leaver from Belfast, spoke to William about what support can be put in place to help those in care get into work.

William asked him if those leaving care feel they can “get back into the system” once they get past a certain age.

Before leaving they met Mike Farrar, permanent secretary at the Stormont Department of Health.

Kate meets members of the public after a visit to The Commons in South Belfast (Aaron Chown/PA)PA WireAs the couple left, they were greeted by hundreds who had waited in the rain outside.

William and Kate shook hands and took selfies with the crowd, with William making a FaceTime call to the mother of one of those waiting.

Later customers enjoying an afternoon browse at Ikea on the outskirts of Belfast were delighted with a big surprise on the tills at the cafe.

William and Kate, under the supervision of Ikea workers Séamus McBrearty and Sophie Russell, seemed to take to their new duties with aplomb.

One little boy gazed up wide eyed at the Princess from behind the tray trolley, as it was explained who they were, smiling shyly as Kate leaned over beaming at him, asking whether he was looking forward to his yummy food.

Meanwhile two local school girls seemed starstruck by William as they approached to pay for their meal, while onlookers from around the store gathered for a look.

The Prince and Princess were at Ikea to meet some of the young people it had recruited locally through NEON with support from Homewards partner, Hays’ Project Flourish in partnership with EveryYouth.

They also met with leaders representatives from Specsavers, B&Q and Howdens, who have committed to joining NEON and travelled to Northern Ireland to learn from the pilot’s success.