Youth Off The Streets

Youth Off The Streets is an Australian not-for-profit youth organisation with locations in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. The organisation works with young people, their families and communities to create safety, offer support and provide opportunities to build a positive future.

Since being founded by Father Chris Riley in 1991, Youth Off The Streets has grown to deliver a range of wraparound supports for young people. These include crisis accommodation and housing services, independent high schools, alcohol and other drugs counselling, youth justice support, life skills and employment programs, cultural support and community engagement, among other services.

Youth Off The Streets is a non-denominational organisation with a focus on early interventions that empower young people and strengthen communities.

In May 2020, Deputy CEO Lex Nadine Lutherborrow was appointed by Father Riley and the Youth Off The Streets Board as CEO. Father Riley transitioned into the role of Founder and Executive Director.

History[]

Starting with a single food van providing meals to homeless young people in Sydney’s Kings Cross, New South Wales, Father Chris Riley spent the next three decades growing Youth Off The Streets into a leading non-denominational youth services organisation.

Don Bosco House, Youth Off The Streets’ first refuge in Sydney’s Inner West, opened its doors in April 1991.

In April 1995, Father Riley started the Dunlea Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program in Merrylands in Western Sydney. The program is now called Dunlea Alcohol and Other Drugs Youth Service.

In 1996, Father Riley opened Key College in Redfern, the first Youth Off The Streets high school for young people who had become disconnected from mainstream education.

Father Riley went on to expand educational services within Youth Off The Streets to include six accredited independent high schools across Greater Sydney, the Illawarra region and the NSW Central Coast.

He also developed and implemented innovative strategies to help young people deal with trauma, abuse and neglect. Many of these strategies have been adopted by schools and government agencies across Australia.

Father Riley’s biography, Mean Streets, Kind Heart, was written by Sue Williams and first published in 2004.

Youth Off The Streets now offers a wide range of integrated support services and programs for young people and families, enabled and delivered by more than 200 staff and a community of over 330 dedicated volunteers.

Additionally, Father Riley saw an opportunity to help young people overseas in East Timor after independence in 2002. Following the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on Boxing Day in 2004, Youth Off The Streets helped build an orphanage in Aceh, Indonesia. The not-for-profit Youth Off The Streets Overseas Relief Fund was established to work on small projects alongside local partners, providing non-religious and non-discriminatory assistance to children and young people, including housing, education, health and welfare facilities and programs.

Youth services[]

Homelessness and housing

Youth Off The Streets provides a range of homelessness and housing support services for young people aged 25 and under. These include including prevention and early intervention support, crisis accommodation in two youth refuges, transitional housing, one-on-one casework support and referrals to other specialist services. Youth Off The Streets also offers life skills programs, brokerage support to help young people find and keep safe housing, and a Street Walk program which provides after-hours practical help and referrals for young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Sydney and Melbourne.

Education

Youth Off The Streets operates six independent high schools that are registered and accredited with the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). Its learning programs for Years 9–12 have a flexible approach that respond to the specific needs of students.

Its Schooling via Off-campus Learning for At-Risk students(SOLAR) Program at EDEN College in Sydney’s Macquarie Fields was created during the 2020 COVID lockdowns to keep vulnerable students engaged with school.^[1]

Alcohol and other drugs

Youth Off The Streets’ Dunlea Alcohol and Other Drugs Youth Service helps young people in Western Sydney aged 13 to 19 take control of their drug use. The program works with young people and their families to break the cycle of drug misuse, set personal goals and build the foundations for a healthy life.

Mental health support

Youth Off The Streets helps young people access the mental health support services they need to recover and thrive. These include a specialist Alcohol and Other Drugs Counsellor at its Dunlea service, caseworkers who help young people access the mental health services that will best support their recovery, and counselling and psychological support services for enrolled students in its independent high schools.

Life skills and personal growth

Youth Off The Streets offers a range of opportunities to develop practical living skills and social skills for a positive and independent future.

Youth justice

Youth Off The Streets provides intensive one-on-one support and services to young people involved with or at risk of being involved with the justice system, including specialist casework, diversion programs, therapeutic pathways and a court support program.

Cultural support

Youth Off The Streets works with First Nations young people and young people from multicultural backgrounds in a safe, welcoming and culture-specific way. The Cultural Development team works with every area of the organisation to ensure the rights and needs of young people from diverse cultural backgrounds are reflected in all of its services and programs

Scholarships, training and employment

Youth Off The Streets supports young people who want to continue their education after high school, gain employment skills, or find a stable job. Its National Scholarship Program has been running since 2004 and provides financial assistance, mentoring and other supports to young people engaged in training or further education. Youth Off The Streets is also an approved Registered Training Organisation (RTO code 41450) and delivers several nationally accredited vocational education and training (VET) courses to enrolled students in its independent high schools.

Community engagement

Youth Off The Streets provides a range of activities and support services in safe, friendly environments to young people aged 12–25 across Greater Sydney, regional NSW and some areas of Queensland and Victoria. It runs accessible youth spaces in Blacktown, Merrylands, Weston and Logan, as well as the Koch Centre for Youth and Learning in Macquarie Fields, and the Cordeaux Centre for Youth and Learning in the Illawarra.

Street Walk and Food Van

Youth Off The Streets’ Street Walk program runs on multiple nights every week, providing vital support to homeless and vulnerable young people in Sydney’s CBD and Inner West, and in the Melbourne CBD and surrounding areas.

The Food Van operates every night of the year and travels between Darlinghurst and Green Park in Sydney.

Funding[]

Youth Off The Streets is a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. The organisation receives income from federal, state and local governments, corporate partnerships and fundraising activities.

External links[]

Official website

References[]