Twin Rivers Crisis Center

General information

Teen Challenge started in Brooklyn New York in 1958 by Rev. David Wilkerson. Wilkerson was a young country preacher pastoring a church in Eastern Pennsylvania.

One February afternoon Wilkerson read an article in Life magazine about seven teenagers on trial for murder. During a gang fight in Manhattan these teens beat a young man to death. Troubled by what he read in the article and sensing God wanted him to do something for the teens Wilkerson made a trip to the urban area of New York City. Sometime after this Wilkerson resigned his church to move to the New York City area to work full time with teenage gang members. This new work was eventually called Teen Challenge. Soon Teen Challenge also began to offer help to those addicted to drugs and alcohol.

During these early years a large home was obtained in Brooklyn, New York and a yearlong residential discipleship program was started. Due to its success Teen Challenge centers began cropping up in cities all across America. Today there are over 200 Teen Challenge residential centers in the U.S. and 1,000 around the world.

Teen Challenge began in the Sacramento Valley area in 1974. The ministry now consists of five discipleship centers and oversees a variety of community outreaches as well as a number of contact offices including one in Redding, Susanville, Oroville and Chico. These contact offices conduct outreaches and facilitate helping those who need a residential program get into one of our five discipleship centers.