The Prince’s Seeing is Believing
Responsible Business & Enterprise
The Prince’s Seeing is Believing
The Prince’s Seeing is Believing (PSiB) brings corporate leaders face to face with social and economic issues, and demonstrates the impact that responsible business can have by closing the gap between the boardroom and the community. Run in partnership with the Wellesley Institute, Prince’s Charities Canada has launched a series of PSiB programs in Canada.
With PSiB, C-suite executives take a day out of their offices and gain a new perspective on social issues. With a focus in Canada on disadvantaged youth, we are breaking new ground in helping to develop training and employment opportunities for a sector of our community that is often overlooked and marginalized.
A typical PSIB visit day:
- Is led by a prominent member of the local business community
- Accommodates approximately 12 C-suite participants, plus senior public-sector representatives
- Visits two community organizations
- Provides the opportunity for one-on-one dialogue between business participants and youth representatives
- Concludes with an in-camera session where strategies for action are developed and ideas initiated
PSiB visit days are scheduled to take place in Calgary, Winnipeg and Halifax in 2013/14.
Canadian PSiB visit days have generated:
- Workplace internships and social enterprise assignments for street-involved youth
- Improved access to development and operating capital through financial innovation
- A review of hiring practices in large corporations
- A review of the opportunities for private-sector funding for urban-Aboriginal youth scholarships
- Social marketing support to bring increased visibility to Aboriginal enterprises and opportunities
For more information: www.wellesleyinstitute.com
How The Prince is Involved
The Prince of Wales started the PSiB program in the U.K. more than two decades ago.
Believing that companies had a role to play in the regeneration of disadvantaged communities, The Prince invited a group of senior business leaders to join him on a day-long visit to a town in England that had been hit hard by unemployment throughout the 1980s. His Royal Highness was convinced that direct contact and dialogue with members of the community would help those business leaders better understand the issues affecting the area and might lead to them playing a role in its recovery.
Since then, more than 8,000 business leaders have participated in the PSiB program. The program has, over two decades, improved people’s lives in communities across the U.K., through changing both the attitudes and action plans of the participating business leaders.
During his visit to Toronto in May of 2012, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales met with business leaders, youth and community representatives who had participated in the first PSiB Toronto community visit day. His roundtable discussion was followed by a visit to UforChange in St James Town where he met with youth enrolled in the agency’s arts- oriented programs that build confidence, creativity, and employable skills in this, one of Toronto’s most challenged neighbourhoods.
