In October of 1974, a committee of concerned community professionals formed to explore the possibility of establishing a Niagara-based detention facility for young people from the Niagara Region. In 1978, the committee developed a proposal for an Open Detention home to be located in the Fonthill area and designed to be operated as a houseparent model residence. In August of 1979, under the name Juvenile Detention (Niagara) Inc., a ten-bed Open Detention /group home residence was opened.
In June of 2000, the Agency opened a second, 11-bed home behind the original site. The new Detention and Custody facility name was selected in memory of David Stanley Horne, a sergeant with the Niagara Regional Police force, who was instrumental in establishing Youth Bureaus in the Welland and St. Catharines, Ontario areas.
In 2001, under the guidance of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and the decrease in the need for detention and custody beds. We refocused our efforts on the growing need for group homes in our area to service high risk/needs young people.
In April 2006, in collaboration with Family and Children’s Services Niagara we founded a new 8-bed group home to provide a caring and safe residential home for young people from our communities, the Ray and Pat Wagner Home. The home was named after long-serving Board member Ray Wagner and his wife Pat. Ray and Pat Wagner dedicated much of their working and retired years helping to enrich the lives of young people.
By the end of 2006, we recognized that our company name did not represent our overall service values and we decided to make a change. In November 2006, we officially changed our company name to Youth Resources Niagara Incorporated as we felt this better represented the overall scope of our work with young people in the Niagara Region.
In the Fall of 2015, in partnership with Youth Justice Services (MCYS) reprofiled our open detention/custody operations in favour of a more contemporary and voluntary transitional program to assist youth in the stabilization of their community reintegration.
In 2019 Youth Resources Niagara in partnership with Family and Children’s Services again expanded our services and opened a 9-bed residential home for female youth, Genesis. This residential program allowed the repatriation of many youth who had been moved out of their home communities due to a lack of available beds.
Youth Resources Niagara’s commitment to assisting young people has, over the years, seen us expand our services by establishing a number of prevention-based community programs for high risk youth in the community in addition to our residential services. Working in collaboration with local police departments and other agencies, we offer a variety of supports to youth that have come into contact with the legal system at various levels.