Hélène Tholoniat
Project Lead
Hélène has always been guided by a passion for equity and justice. This ultimately led her to join ThirdStory, where she helps drive systemic change to enable people and communities to thrive.
With a background in social work, social enterprise, and project management, Hélène brings a diverse skillset to the team, contributing to the management of projects and delivery of research, design and evaluation activities.
Having worked as a child protection social worker, Hélène brings a person-centred approach to research and co-design, acknowledging people with lived experience as the experts of their own lives and seeking to learn from and walk alongside them. This experience in the human services sector has also provided her an insight into how such services work on the frontline, enabling her to relate to practitioners and imagine practical solutions when (re)designing services. Hélène’s strategic and analytical skills help her translate research into insights and recommendations for key decision makers, including Government and large non-for-profit organisations.
Since joining ThirdStory in 2022, Hélène has worked on research, design and evaluation projects across the child protection, homelessness, family and domestic violence, and disability sectors. Additionally she has managed a range of internal projects, including the development and running of the Social Design Academy (SoDA), and supporting the team and organisation’s project management capability.
Prior to joining ThirdStory, Hélène managed projects in the social enterprise and community development sectors in New Zealand and France, working closely with government bodies and agencies and other not-for-profits. Working for the Ākina Foundation, Hélène supported the Social Enterprise World Forum in 2017, and a year later, coordinated another large scale project, the Social Enterprise Sector Development Programme in partnership with the Department of Internal Affairs in New Zealand.
More recently, Hélène trained as a social worker in the United Kingdom, where she obtained a Masters in Social Work, and worked as a Child and Family Social Worker for Gloucestershire County Council. This experience ignited a specific interest in Hélène for systemic change in child protection.
Hélène also holds a Masters in Corporate Management and Public Affairs (from HEC Paris and Sciences Po Paris). She completed the Harvard Summer School in Social Innovation during these studies, and most recently, completed the Social Design Academy.