Youth Off The Streets
Riley founded Youth Off The Streets (YOTS) in 1991 with a food van delivering meals to homeless youth in the Kings Cross area in Sydney. Since then the organisation has grown to offer more than 25 services, including aboriginal programs, crisis accommodation, alcohol and other drug services, counselling, accredited high schools, outreach, residential programs and a mentoring program. The organisation is non-denominational and works for young people who are homeless, drug dependent and recovering from abuse.
Riley is CEO of the organisation, sharing the belief that no child is born bad, and that by having someone believe in them and through the right support, young people can overcome the immense personal traumas that they face.
Youth Off The Streets opened a centre for youth in Macquarie Fields, named after longtime supporters Elizabeth and David Koch. The Centre creates a safe and engaging environment based on trust and respect and supports young people by providing opportunities to encourage and facilitate life choices. Located at 86 Parliament Rd Macquarie Fields, the Centre and the activities it offers young people aim to set an Australian benchmark for excellence in the provision of youth and community services.
Youth Off The Streets Overseas Relief Fund has provided support in East Timor, Indonesia and Tanzania. Riley has worked with the Islamic organisation Muhammadiyah and helped build an orphanage in Aceh, Indonesia, after the 2004 tsunami.
Riley makes frequent media appearances on behalf of YOTS, including a weekly radio segment broadcast on 2UE in Sydney and 2CC in Canberra.
Read more about this topic: Chris Riley (priest)
Famous quotes containing the words youth and/or streets:
“The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquillity of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)
“How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn’t love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)