About Us

The Lasallian Education Services team provides formation programs and resources for staff of all Lasallian works in the District of Australia, New Zealand and PNG. This includes Principals, CEOs, Board members, teaching staff, BoysTown staff (predominantly counselors and youth workers)-.anyone who works in a Lasallian ministry. Our courses are attended by Brothers, lay partners and other religious who work for the Lasallian mission.

Our mission statement:

Lasallian Education Services aims to discern, create and deliver a range of formation services to assist partners and Brothers in serving the Lasallian educational Mission with fidelity and zeal.

Our history:

In 1990, The Brothers began a “Lasallian Centre”, based in Narooma, NSW. Initially, the Lasallian Resource Team comprised three Brothers. While renewal and retreat courses at Narooma were initially aimed primarily at Brothers, there was also a growing awareness that Lasallian formation programs also needed to be provided for lay partners. This led to the establishment of the Lasallian National Secretariat.

The Lasallian National Secretariat began in 1996, under the leadership of Mary Conlan. The role of the Secretariat was to promote the idea of shared mission and encourage lay staff and other religious working in Lasallian ministries to become Lasallian partners with the Brothers. Mary ran formation programs at Narooma, and also began the newsletter, Touching Hearts.

In 2002, Trish Carroll assumed the position of Director of the Secretariat, which was then re-named Lasallian Education Services.

Our future:

1. LES, over the next five years, would progressively become more concerned with resource development and the training/formation/accreditation of presenters as the core work of the Office.
   
   LES would train a network of presenters, including i) key personnel active within their particular workplaces; ii) Narooma presenters iii) leadership course tutors. Effective succession planning is contingent on appropriate training and resourcing of personnel. We would not send a teacher into a classroom without training in both content and methodology. We need to train those responsible for formation programs- adult educators- with similar thoroughness if they are to be successful in their work.
   
   In order to ensure the continued growth of Lasallian formation, LES needs to develop as a resource and training body with less direct involvement of current LES staff in face-to-face delivery. The use of web based learning is critical to this expansion of services.
2. Association is best cultivated in individual workplaces, where partners and Brothers are actively working together in service of the mission. It is the role of LES to assist the growth of association by offering support to Lasallian facilitators, Narooma graduates and the leaders of individual workplaces through the provision of programs, resources and experiences.
   
   LES, over the next five year, will move away from a “top down” model (such as centrally organised Lasallian Partners meetings), to a “grass roots” model, where the role of the Office will be to assist and support Lasallians in the development of programs and activities in their own workplaces. While there is still value in occasional events where colleagues from many workplaces gather together, association communities form organically and most effectively at the local level.
   
   Association is very much linked to formation and resources, and LES will continue to not only provide these services, but also encourage willing staff on site to be actively involved in Lasallian animation in their own community.
   
   LES identifies an emerging need over the next five years as the provision of formation programs for new forms of governance as they develop, including Mission Councils and Boards, which provide “voice and vote” for lay partners and Brothers together.

Our priorities:

The priorities of Lasallian Education Services over the next five years are to:

• Develop and deliver an Integrated Formation Pathway, using online and face-to-face delivery;
• Provide a range of professional print publications materials, including Touching Hearts and a monthly formation newsletter;
• Create and grow an online data bank of resources, including an online Lasallian library, interactive formation programs, PowerPoint workshops, DVDs, prayers and images;
• Support the development of partnership and association through formation programs and opportunities for community experiences post Narooma;
• Identify, train and mentor a team of formators at local and District level;

Our organisational values:

• Serving the Lasallian mission: the LES team, through a variety of mediums which communicate the story, values and spirituality of De La Salle, aims to touch hearts and transform lives so that people can better serve the mission of caring for young people in need;
• Association: the LES team aim to model a collaborative, warm and dynamic community of “brother and sister”, and to extend this same brother/sister relationship to the people we serve;
• Professionalism: the LES team are committed to ongoing scholarship and training in order to maintain a high standard of program delivery;
• Pedagogical innovation: the LES facilitators are dedicated to exploring and implementing the use of methodologies best suited to adult learners, with a particular focus on online learning programs and multimodal delivery;
• Growth: the LES team aims to function as an organic and dynamic organisational, which is constantly evolving to better meet the needs of the people we serve.

Our stakeholders:

While the LES staff is at the service of all partners and Brothers engaged in the Lasallian mission, we identify the following stakeholders as our priority target groups for future program and resource development over the next five-year period:

• Potential Lasallian formators at local and District levels;
• Aspirational, developing and acting leaders in schools and BoysTown;
• Those staff new to the organisation (induction);
• Associates and post Narooma graduates;
• Those serving on Boards, Mission Councils (and other new forms of governance as they emerge).