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 education of females has been exclusively directed to fit them for displaying to advantage the charms of youth and beauty. ... though well to decorate the blossom, it is far better to prepare for the harvest.”
—Emma Hart Willard (1787–1870)
“The authoritarian child-rearing style so often found in working-class families stems in part from the fact that parents see around them so many young people whose lives are touched by the pain and delinquency that so often accompanies a life of poverty. Therefore, these parents live in fear for their children’s future—fear that they’ll lose control, that the children will wind up on the streets or, worse yet, in jail.”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)