Daniel Poole, Young Victorian of the Year recipient and Co-Founder of Society Melbourne is stepping down from his position on the social enterprise’s Board of Directors.

Daniel originally founded Society Melbourne’s first social enterprise, Crêpes for Change, back in 2015, and went on to lead Society Melbourne until 2018 before passing the baton onto their current managing director Tenille Gilbert.

Society Melbourne is a social enterprise with the vision of eliminating youth homelessness in Australia. Dedicated to this purpose, 100% of profits from their four social enterprises, Crêpes for Change, The Coffee Cart, home.one & home.two, go towards helping young people escape the homelessness cycle.

Daniel, who is moving on to focus on other social impact work as a pro bono lawyer and as a Co-Founder of legal start-up Anika Legal, is immensely proud of what the team at Society Melbourne has achieved.

“I don’t think anyone (including us) believed that a bunch of twenty-somethings could succeed in building so many great businesses, and in helping so many young people,” said Daniel.  “My 5 years with the organisation have been nothing short of a privilege, and I have a huge amount of admiration for everyone involved.”

Society Melbourne now welcomes charity expert Chris Mills as their new Director.

Chris has a huge amount of experience in the charity sector, currently Chris sits in the role of Trust and Foundations Manager at The Brotherhood of St. Laurence.

Prior to this, Chris worked in both fundraising and social work at Launch Housing and The Salvation Army.

Chris’ experience in the homelessness sector, as well as his academic studies in policy make him a wealth of knowledge for Society Melbourne as he joins the Board of Directors.

“This is a cause that really resonates with me,” said Chris. “I loved being involved with Society Melbourne when I worked at one of their partner organisations and now I can continue my involvement as a Board Director. I can’t wait.”

“While my time has come, I plan to continue to support Society Melbourne however I can and I can’t wait to see what we achieve in the future. There is a lot of work to be done, we need your support more than ever in these uncertain times. And our young people need the employment and training we provide more than ever too. So, watch this space, and stay with us on our mission to end youth homelessness in Australia” said Dan.

Tenille said she is extremely excited to welcome Chris on board. As an organisation, she said they are at this pivotal stage in the journey where they are moving from the Co-Founder Board of Directors to a growing Board including external experts in their field.

“We look to this next step as an opportunity to continue to build Society Melbourne’s reach and impact, and to establish it as a social enterprise that will continue to be around to support the young people of Melbourne for many years to come,” she said.