Harrison House Youth Services grew out of the Harrison House Youth Hostel in Hawthorn. In the early 1980s, Harrison House had been expanding its services to accommodate young people of both sexes, and also developing additional accommodation and community support services in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
Harrison House Youth Services helped a community group to establish 'Courtney Youth Services' in 1985. Courtney Youth Services set up Hotham Hostel, a specialist youth hostel for girls in North Melbourne. Courtney Youth Services was aupiced by Harrison House Youth Services until it became autonomous in around 1988.
By 1986, Harrison House Youth Services had programs at 7 houses and also included girls at risk of homelessness. It also ran a program called 'Harrison Industries', repairing motorcycles and selling playground equipment, funded by the William Buckland Foundation.
In 1989, the organisation became known as Harrison Youth Services. That year, it established Greenock House, a service for people with an intellectual disability leaving prison.
By 1991, Harrison Youth Services operated 11 houses and in 1992 moved its administrative headquarters to the Wantirna South Uniting Church, 111 Mountain Highway, Wantirna.
In 1993, it merged with the Waverley Youth Housing Group.
Harrison Youth Services opened an opportunity shop at Blackburn in 1989 and another one in Vermont in 1993.
In 1994 the name changed again to Harrison Community Services reflecting a broadening of services delivered by the agency, to include families as well as young people.
We do not currently have any photographs linked to this entry. If you know of any additional photographs, please contact us.
The Find & Connect Support Service can help people who lived in orphanages and children's institutions look for their records.
Last updated:
25 January 2023
Cite this: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000840
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License