On a mission to Leave No One Behind

^{Noah Yang presenting in the Leave No One Behind program}

There are more than 116,000 people experiencing homelessness in Australia. Melbourne resident Noah Yang – like so many – felt confronted and powerless by the scale of the issue.

“I knew I wanted to do something. I could not turn away and needed to get to the heart of the problem.”

With the help of a local bakery – Noah and a friend would sit down and literally ‘break bread’ with fellow Australians who had come to make the streets their home.

It was Noah’s light bulb moment.

“It wasn’t food or money that they needed. It was just connection and time. And that was the start of our first outreach for We Are Mobilise in 2016.”

Today, it is a nationally recognised charity with over 100 outreaches based in key capital cities around the country. We Are Mobilise strives to provide recognition and functional care to those experiencing homelessness, to educate and raise awareness to the broader society and to be a platform that creates change through connection.

As its founder, Noah credits MSDI’s Leave No One Behind program with helping him turn his passion into a sound business model. One that could amplify its reach and impact to scale.

The program gave us the knowledge on how to develop our social enterprise with a structure in place because at that point we were operating intuitively. It made me aware of what was possible to scale because when you are building something from the ground up – you are only looking one step ahead of yourself. But this allowed me to think more broadly and bigger.”

Never in his wildest dreams did Noah think that ‘bigger’ would materialise in the form of Nedd Brockman who in 2022 ran nearly 4,000km across Australia in 47 days – raising over 2 million dollars for We Are Mobilise and the fight against homelessness.

Nedd’s mammoth run had given the charity a national stage from the public interest and media attention received.

“When Nedd crossed the finish line in Sydney I was overwhelmed, as it’s not often that every single one of your dreams is achieved in a single moment in time.”

This whole journey has taught me to dream big. It was definitely that broader and bigger thinking that was implanted from the Leave No One Behind program.”

As he looks to expand services and resources for the charity in 2023, Noah is buoyed by the conviction that nothing is impossible when you find something that you are passionate about.

Even if there is no clear pathway. Because when you put in the work – the pathway will reveal itself.”