Serving Youth at the Margins: Lasallian Volunteers over 20 years

How do you grow an organization? Have an open mind, attract younger motivated people to join, and offer them an exciting project. Over the last two decades, one hundred and fifty young people have taken up the challenge of the Lasallian District. The original program “Share the Mission”, now called “Lasallian Volunteers”, is still fully alive and answering urgent needs throughout our District.

This is the first of five insights over this significant year, the 20th anniversary, into the youth volunteer movement of the Lasallian District of ANZPPNG.

YOUTH MINISTRY – Youth serving youth on the margins

Early in the millennium, the De La Salle Brothers took on, as an imperative, the design of a new project -  to share their mission with young post-secondary school volunteers. The project was tied to attracting new youth to join the Brothers’ Institute; the initiative was enthusiastically taken up, says Br. Tony Cummins, Director of Vocations and Youth Ministry at the time. A Management Team planned and created “Share the Mission” (STM) in 2003, with six young men becoming the pioneers in 2004. They were sited – two each- at La Salle Bankstown N.S.W., Luurnpa School Balgo Hills, W.A. and “yourtown” welfare hub at Kingston, Qld (then known as BoysTown).

Why has it continued over 20 years? A confluence of factors was in play. The De La Salle Brothers had some specific works  for very disadvantaged youth or in quite poor school communities – the indigenous Wirrrimanu desert community, multiple welfare and employment services at ‘yourtown’, and schools with students with special needs. Secondly, Br. Tony, with Craig Elloy began encouraging youth leadership in Lasallian schools. At Oakhill College, soon afterwards,  Br. Mark McKeon established an innovative in-house program of “Lasallian Youth Leaders” acting as enthusing peers to younger students: they explained the Founder’s ethos, created service projects and led, spiritual reflection days.

At the same time, many schools started thinking global, and began offering senior students especially, short immersion experiences in parts of Asia, working with the disadvantaged and the poor. Br. Tony engineered several of these trips. Some young British Lasallians did similarly in Africa. For Christians, this was educating in social justice as a component of living one’s faith; for all it emphasized the importance of a service mentality in society. Some years before, Brothers’ schools in U.S.A. benefitted from university graduate volunteers’ work in a quasi-internment program, and over some decades. In addition, Australian secondary graduates across the board were taking up overseas experience and service opportunities  in “GAP years”.

In the years 2004 to 2009 there were three to six Volunteers each year. They came from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Australia.  Br. Gary Wilson managed the program, which included advertising in schools (through the Br. Vocations Director’s visits), selection, orientation & “transition home” programs,  mentoring remotely & via visits on-site, and the creation of policies, protocols and Volunteer manuals. By 2009, there had been  placements at Balgo Hills, “yourtown”/Logan Reserve, Mangere East (NZ), Hohola & Mainohana (PNG), Bankstown & Malvern.

In late 2004 the “Share the Mission” Program was accepted formally by the Brothers’ planning/ decision-making Chapter. The year 2007 saw the first female Volunteer, Amy Bisshops at Balgo Hills. Before 2009, there were 3 adult Volunteers – 2 Lasallian teachers from PNG and a Lasallian youth minister from NZ.

PURSUING BROAD GOALS – Mutual Education

The core of the Program was stated in the advertising strap-line –“an associate volunteer program for Lasallian young adults and Partners living & sharing in radical service in the ANZPNG District”

The practice of Lasallian  of association was realised in the Volunteers living in a Brothers’ community, and working with them and Lasallian Partners. Informally, personal formation/ development aimed at “deepening personal beliefs and your meaning and direction in life”,  i.e. a growth osmotically in Christian spirituality. Personal reflection and feedback was encouraged. The 10-month experience was an invitation and a journey, not only for the Volunteers, but the Brothers and Partners who mentored them:

“The chance for the Brothers to enjoy the presence of younger people in community, (said Br. Tony), to learn something of youth culture and appreciate life as a young person in the 21st century brought a whole new dimension to the Brothers’ traditional community life. The volunteers brought youthful energy, innocently deep questions and a refreshing, if not challenging, way of living together”.

This was healthy on-going education for the Brothers, as was the hugely generous work and relationships offered by the Lasallian Partners in the placements.

DYNAMIC CHANGE, 2009 –

The modest program had a significant face-lift when handed over to the management of the now well-established Ministry leader, James Camden. An old boy of Oakhill College, he brought a young person’s perspective and a younger “language” to the operation. From this time, James and a small number of District Youth Ministers employed in a few Lasallian schools ensured that the marketing of the program became more dynamic, advertised smartly, and made more “relatable” to senior students.

Its emphasis became service “as a way of giving back and building skills for…future vocation”, says James. Importantly, STM became, he says, “an unexpected breeding ground for quality Youth Ministers” who were rapidly increasing in District schools.

The change in emphasis seemed to lessen the emphasis of living within Brothers’ communities, but the sense of Christian community could be experienced in very welcoming school sites, and in the more electronic world of their fellow Volunteers on other sites, as well as the relationships building within the District Youth Ministry team.

BOOM TIMES

When Philippe Dulawan replaced James Camden as the new Young Lasallians Co-ordinator in 2014, there had been regularly groups of 8 to 10 STM Volunteers per year. There was continuity to produce strong interest of candidates for STM within a constantly expanding Youth Ministers program and Young Lasallian Team. Lasallian Mission Services (LMS) adjusted the aims of the Program somewhat. Centrally, the goal was still service to host placements in their part of the Lasallian mission, and the experience of community within the 18 part-time Youth Ministers grouping (in 2022). LMS saw personal development of Volunteers’ skills as one newer focus, as well as some Volunteers living separately from Brothers’ communities, while still seeing the Brothers as “rich sources of wisdom”.

The impact of COVID and the shuffling of program management in the 2016-21 years was unfortunate, but one striking result were stable or increasing numbers of Volunteers – 9 to 14, with 19 youth in 2019. This high interest in the renamed “Lasallian Volunteers” was a result of increased finance, and  the ongoing advocacy of the program by the Lasallian Mission Services leadership team. There was also very solid in-person and online marketing, wider networking in schools, and access to Papua New Guinea and ‘yourtown’ as placements. placements. The acceptance of young women at the Scarborough community added a diversity of placements for females in our Lasallian schools.

Young women were now more common as Volunteers, and Stefanie Lloyd, Joanne Nehme and Kate Westhead had some shorter stints in charge of the program. From an innovative idea, solidly linked to the Brothers’ vocation and life, Lasallian Volunteers quickly came to suggest that there was a type of Lasallian vocation that was broader than that of a De La Salle Brother. It was exhibited as a possible growth point for young people in their lives, youth who committed themselves to a service ministry, peer-to-peer, and who valued the community of other Lasallians in a faith-filled project.

(Later articles in this series will explore the world of the Volunteers themselves, different Lasallian Placement personnel, and what has been learnt over the years).

Disclaimer: The author (Br Gary Wilson) was the manager of the program from 2003-09.