My Introductory remarks at the Offical Launch of the Sexual Integrity Pilot Project Report

Good evening your Grace and welcome everyone here tonight to the Rheinberger Center.

The origins of the sexual integrity education pilot project actually go back to some conversations that took place towards the end of 2007. 
I recall that at that time the dilemma had been raised of the lack of resources
that were available for our Catholic Schools to draw upon in relation to
sexuality and relationships.

While the state schools were able to utilise the services of Family Planning, for our Catholic Schools this was of course not going to be appropriate.  In discussing this with Archbishop Mark and with Moira from
the Catholic Education Office it was agreed that we would explore what
CatholicLIFE as a new formation, ministry and mission support office of the
Archdiocese, might be able to facilitate to better support our Catholic School
students in relation to sexual integrity. 

The challenge as I saw it at the time was to come up with an approach that would be:

• effective in terms of learning outcomes for students,
• genuinely complimentary to the important role that teachers have,
• sustainable in the context of our very large Archdiocese
• integrate with the vision and work of evangelisation in our local Church…the leading young people to the discovery of Christ without whom true human flourishing is not possible…

So it was in this context this Pilot Project was carried out, and going forward now this Pilot Project is a foundation for building a more holistic learning framework in our Archdiocese for sexual integrity. 

While the pilot did test the effectiveness of one particular and very good program, it also tested the way this program was implemented.  This implementation essentially drew upon a collaborative community development model and I think this is the reason for its success.  Looking forward I believe it is this community development approach which will keep this issue on the agenda and subsequently give us the best opportunity to generate more ideas and provide greater access to the many other very good programs and resources that exist in our community.

I cannot thank everyone involved but I would especially like to take this opportunity to single out a few people:

• To Moira and the Catholic Education Office for your support and partnership,

• Catherine Cooney, for your hard work, energy and passionate commitment to this issue,
  
• Rachel Reeves, for your dedicated and detailed management and quality assurance along the way, 
  
• ·And finally but definitely not least, thank you to the dedicated volunteers who have generously have given of their time, resources and energy.  Your faithful service and ministry in this pilot project has built a firm foundation for the future.