Pret Foundation - Rising Stars Programme

Jobs for the homeless

Rising Stars Programme

The Pret Foundation has been around for more than 20 years and has a simple goal: to alleviate poverty by helping to break the cycle of homelessness. Our unique Rising Stars programme offers homeless people real jobs and a real chance to shine.

Meet our Rising Stars

Launched in 2008, the programme takes on over 40 Rising Stars each year. We’ll find them a shop suited to them; nothing too far away, with an understanding team and a supportive manager. Food, travel, accommodation – all the little things are taken care of. For the next three months all they have to do is focus on the job and their future.

The Pret House at WLM St Luke’s

Around 75% of candidates graduate after three months and almost half stay with Pret for more than a year. Over the last decade, over 450 Stars have been through the programme. But each year, some stars don’t graduate and the biggest reason why that happens is a lack of accommodation nearby. To help address this we’ve opened The Pret House at WLM St Luke’s which is a house for the homeless.

Shooting Stars

We started the Shooting Stars programme in 2015. We take 8 graduate Rising Stars each year through an 8-month programme of workshops and off-sites to give them additional skills to help climb the career ladder (whether that be in Pret or not).

For every soup you buy, we make a donation to The Pret Foundation to help break the cycle of homelessness.