Charlton Youth Services was an agency of the Anglican Home Mission Society and, after Anglicare was formed in 1985, of Anglicare Welfare Services. It was formed to manage Charlton Boys Homes in the 1950s. Charlton Youth Services provided care for older boys, many of whom were referred by the courts. By 2012, the name Charlton Youth Services was no longer in use. Some of its records, and records of boys’ homes that were under its supervision, are held by Anglicare Out-of-Home Care Service.
Charlton Youth Services operated Charlton Boys Home at Glebe and Ashfield. The Ashfield complex included Milleewa, Robinson and Wright. They also operated Trigg at Granville; Lisgar at Summer Hill (which had previously been at Oatley, Bonnet Bay and Marrickville); Carramar at Girraween and Telopea; Timaru at Macquarie Fields (Campbelltown) and Ingleburn.
Charlton Boys Home at Ashfield consisted of three buildings built at 16 Brunswick Parade, on the former Milleewa boys home site. In the late 1970s the large homes devolved into smaller group homes so the Ashfield Home was closed and the buildings were renamed Robinson Home (still a home for older boys).
Trigg took its name from one of the cottages formerly at Carlingford Boys Home, which also closed in the late 1970s. Trigg, formerly a cottage at Carlingford Boys Home, was the name given to a group home for boys at Granville and was absorbed into Charlton Youth Services around 1985. Trigg Group Home closed in 1996.
Charlton Youth Services – known simply as Anglicare Youth Services – ran several other homes including Timaru at Campbelltown; Lisgar, a home originally for young women aged 15-18 years (run by the Anglican Deaconesses) and later a girls group home, originally located at Arncliffe and later at Oatley (closed 2002); Carramar at Girraween and Turramurra; a girls group home at Five Dock; a boys’ group home at Canterbury; a halfway house at Five Dock; and a halfway house at Summer Hill. The names and dates of operation are uncertain for these homes.
Charlton Youth Services’ name is no longer in use. The name Lisgar still operates as a youth support and housing program from Summer Hill. Carramar operated as an early intervention program based in Parramatta until 2014.