Prince William’s Homewards programme has today appointed the first UK chair of its New Employment Opportunities Network (NEON). Pano Christou, CEO of Pret A Manger, will lead the network nationally, spearheading its efforts to unlock job opportunities, strengthen retention and provide long-term stability.
NEON is a business-led group, bringing together major employers, local businesses and public services to create routes into work for people at risk of homelessness. Homewards operates across six locations in the UK – Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole, Lambeth, Newport, Northern Ireland and Sheffield – and Christou will oversee the NEON initiative nationally.
The new NEON UK Chair will set the strategic direction of NEON UK, lead collaboration and growth across the six local NEONs and support the development and scaling of the network beyond 2028.
Through its charitable arm, the Pret Foundation, Pret A Manger has long focused on breaking the cycle of homelessness by donating surplus food, funding grants, and providing stable employment and housing. Its work includes the Rising Stars Programme, a dedicated employment scheme that, in partnership with Homewards, helps people who are experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness (as well as refugees and ex-offenders) by offering them training, financial support for travel, and a pathway to permanent jobs in Pret stores.
Through its role as a Homewards Activator and founding partner, Pret has committed to expanding the Rising Stars programme nationally, aiming to support at least 500 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness into jobs with Pret, including in Homewards flagship locations where Pret has a presence. So far, this has helped around 350 people into employment, helping them access stable work, develop new skills and build the foundations for long-term independence.
As NEON continues to grow, Christou will work with employers across the UK to encourage more businesses to play their part in preventing homelessness, helping make employment about potential, not circumstance. By bringing together employers to share ideas and create opportunities, NEON aims to light the way for business to lead on homelessness prevention and make it business as usual.
Hazel Detsiny, executive director of Homelessness, The Royal Foundation, said: “We are delighted to welcome a business leader of Pano’s calibre, whose longstanding commitment to tackling unemployment and homelessness makes him ideally placed to lead the NEON network. This new chair role will play a vital part in supporting businesses to create and strengthen pathways into employment for people across all six Homewards locations, while helping to scale the initiative nationally. As we mark three years of the Homewards programme, Pano’s appointment reflects our ambition to build on the progress achieved so far and take Homewards into its next phase. Years four and five will be focused on accelerating our efforts to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated.”
