Youth Insearch is Australia’s leading peer-led youth intervention organisation, dedicated to supporting at-risk youth. Since 1985 the program has supported over 32,000 young people across NSW, VIC and QLD to overcome trauma and improve their mental health, reducing risk of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and delinquency. The program has a peer focus, on young people helping young people.

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:

1. Weekend Workshops
2. 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 Riverston 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.