After a somber weekend, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge re-appeared on Tuesday to celebrate the volunteers working on their recently-launched text service, Shout, which aims to support those going through mental health crises. The program began in May under the umbrella of The Royal Foundation when it was still headed by the Cambridges and the Sussexes, but it’s been kept under the remit of the Cambridges since the split with the Sussexes still serving as secondary patrons. Notably, the Sussexes included a shout-out (no pun intended) for this engagement on their Instagram, while William acknowledged their roles in his speech. For those keeping track of the back and forth…;)
The couple met with volunteers, mental health campaigners, staff, and members of the public who have been impacted by mental health issues directly or indirectly.
Stats shared from the engagement include the involvement of 1,500 volunteers conducting 145,000 conversations via six million messages…and counting. Seventy-five percent of the people who have contacted the service have been under age 25, while the most common issues raised were suicide, depression, anxiety, and relationship issues.
There’s occasionally criticism of the Cambridges in comparison with the Sussexes pertaining to how they roll-out and track their public projects. Specifically, Kensington Palace is fond of making grand announcements on the front-end, but not making enough hay of milestones or results, while the Sussexes tend to keep things quiet until a project is more fully-baked. I tend to agree with this, so I was particularly glad to see that we’ve heard about Shout (which I had frankly forgotten about) and that the project is still unfolding successfully.
On the fashion front, Kate recycled her black and white Prince of Wales check Smythe blazer. I loved this blazer when she debuted it last year. You can’t see it from Tuesday’s pics because of her hair, but it features a black velvet collar that really popped when she wore it over an all black ensemble. As such, I prefer its first showing, but yesterday was still a big win in my book.
Kate debuted a new pair of cranberry trousers from Joseph with black Gianvito Rossi block heels. It was, needless to say, very autumnal. And after years of almost always seeing Kate in dresses and skirts, I’m still delighted when she wears trousers, an increasingly common new look for her.
As far as we know, we’ll next see Kate with William on Monday evening when they attend the Royal Variety Show. It’s possible there will be an unannounced engagement beforehand, but I’d be surprised. Until then!