Over forty years ago in October 1972, the Youth Service Bureau of Porter County began operations with one office in Valparaiso. The agency was established due to the efforts of the Porter County Chapter of the League of Women Voters with an assist from the Porter County Extension office.

Those two organizations saw the need to create such an agency to address the situation of youth in local detention centers and offer alternative programs for young people whose behavior may bring them in contact with the police or juvenile justice system.

The first location was on Chicago Street in Valparaiso and has grown over the past 47 years to three sites in Porter County serving between 4,000 to 5,000 families each year. Our current locations are noted in the box at the bottom of this page.

Established as an agency that believes all families and people have strengths, the staff continues to this day to provide services and programs that enable people to discover their strengths and to use those strengths to create a new path in their lives. This strength-based approach empowers people and builds self confidence as they recognize they have skills to create a better life. The process also benefits everyone in the county as kids and families have the opportunity to become responsible and productive members of the family unit and the community at large.

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