The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are heading to Nottingham, the scene of their first royal outing after they announced their engagement in November 2017

NEED TO KNOW

• Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are set to step out together for their first official joint outing since returning to the U.K.
• The Duke and Duchess of Sussex plan to head to Nottingham, England, to see various projects close to their hearts
• It was the city where the couple went soon after they announced their engagement in November 2017

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are set to step out together for their first joint official outing since returning to the U.K.

On Friday, Oct. 16, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are heading to the city of Nottingham, which holds a poignant significance for them, PEOPLE has confirmed. It was the place where they first visited after they announced their engagement in November 2017.

In Nottingham, they will visit some causes close to their hearts. At a food bank in the city, Meghan, 45, and Harry, 42, intend to catch up with some of the women the Duchess supported at the Hubb Community Kitchen in London (with whom she created a successful cookbook) when the couple were working royals. The couple will also see the Community Recording Studio, which helps young people affected by violence. Harry has worked with them before, and went to see the organization last year on a solo visit.

Their trip will also see the couple spend time at Epic Partners, which supports young people through mentoring and sport.

U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times, which first reported the impending outings on Oct. 11, quoted a friend of the couple saying, “Nottingham is a really special place for them and they are looking forward to getting back out there into the community, together.” 

After settling their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, into their second school (amid concerns over security during travel to and from their first) the couple has been going out more. Last week, Meghan shared an afternoon tea with friend Malala Yousafzai at luxury London hotel Claridge’s on Wednesday, Oct. 7. Coming just ahead of International Year of the Girl, it has since been announced that Meghan is donating her profits from jams and teas from her brand As Ever sold on Oct. 11 to the Malala Fund.

Meanwhile, Harry indulged in some sporting passion when he headed out to see a rugby match between Leicester TIgers and Gloucester in the Gallagher PREM. There, he was joined by his cousin, George McCorquodale, and was booed by some of the crowd when he appeared briefly on the big screen. (Harry is close with his cousin on his late mother Princess Diana’s side and is believed to have caught up with family members when the Sussexes stayed at Althorp House over the summer.)

The couple has also been out for lunch dates, including to an English country pub, the Falkland Arms in the Cotswolds, on Oct. 2. “They were on their own and were treated the same as anyone else,” an insider at the Falkland Arms told PEOPLE, adding that the couple was warmly welcomed during their visit.

The outing wasn’t Meghan’s first pub visit since moving back to the U.K. On Sept. 21, she was spotted enjoying an afternoon outing with longtime friends and former Montecito neighbors Ellen DeGeneres, 68, and Portia de Rossi, 53, at The Three Horseshoes, an 18th-century pub near Burford, Oxfordshire.

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Harry and Meghan announced on Aug. 19 that they planned to move back to Britain for an extended period; exactly a week later, they were touching down on English soil, in time for their children starting school.

Meghan and Harry still have their home in Montecito, California. The couple is expected to return there, to spend the holidays with their children and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland.

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