The YCW was founded in the factory town of Laeken, Belgium in 1912 when a young priest, Joseph Cardijn, was assigned to work with the young people in the parish. Cardijn worked closely with teenage youth leaders, Madelaine De Roo and Victoire Cappe, to establish a girls action group to address the horrible working conditions the girls were experiencing at the time.

In the following year, 18 year old Fernand Tonnet approached Cardijn to help him set up a similar group for the young men in the parish and together with the girls established the Young Trade Unionists, which later changed its name to Young Christian Workers in 1925.

Fernand Tonnet was joined by Paul Garcet and Jacques Meert who commenced a campaign to establish the YCW in other countries too. In 1946, Cardijn started to visit other countries and by 1950 the YCW was established in 60 countries.