Purpose, Vision, Objectives
Purpose, Vision, Objectives
Youth Insearch is Australia’s leading peer-led youth trauma recovery organisation, dedicated to supporting at-risk youth aged 12-25.
We create safe spaces, where young people with lived experience support each other to heal from trauma, make meaningful peer connections, improve mental wellbeing and overcome life challenges. We do this through a unique combination of group work and individual support. This enables young people to break negative cycles and create lasting change in communities.
Our lived experience peer workers and youth leaders work within multidisciplinary teams embedded within communities. Through community collaboration, we provide wrap around support and advocacy for young people experiencing complex challenges.
We run Weekend Workshops, Weekly Support Groups and Individual Support for young people to connect and develop life skills.
Youth Insearch is an independent not-for-profit organisation and is not affiliated with any religious or political group.
OUR VISION
We Believe
OUR MISSION
CORE PROGRAM
The Youth Insearch program consists of two core components:
- Weekend Workshops
- Community Support
Community support includes weekly support groups, peer-to-peer support, case management, and mentoring.
Youth Insearch also offers Leaders Training which is an essential part of the program, teaching young people skills needed to become a leader within their community. All these elements combine to create significant change in young people.
OUR HISTORY
Youth Insearch was founded in 1985 by a Youth Development Counsellor at the Riverstone Community Neighborhood Centre in North West Sydney.
He believed that individual counselling was slow and had little impact on the community as a whole, so he met with the young people he was counselling to discuss what would be more effective. Together they wrote the Youth Insearch program.
In 1987, Youth Insearch outcomes in Riverstone resulted in the closure of half the Riverstone Police Station operations. Youth crime relating to delinquency, alcohol and drug use and drug dealing had hit an all-time low due to the positive impact of the Youth Insearch program. This was the start of national media coverage and rapid expansion of the program across Australia.