Youth Insearch

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. 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.