By Frances Cantrall
Sam* joined our immersion program and this is part of her story.
By 11 years old, she had been exposed to pornography for the first time.
By 14, she had received unwanted sexts from online strangers.
By 15, she helped a classmate battle an eating disorder
By 16, she was self-harming, depressed and addicted to porn.
By 17, she was convinced her worth was defined by academic success, tried starving herself to be skinny and received suicide threats from her best friend.
By the time she was ready to graduate, the message was this: there is no purpose in life, people are dispensable and real love doesn’t exist.
This is not just one of our stories, but the experiences of this generation.
In 2015, I shared with my friend Chris Da Silva, who had also seen and experienced the hurt of this generation, a common dream to start a movement of young Australians who knew who they are and what they’re created for.
With a mission to equip university graduates with the tools to build a culture of love and life, and to reach school students on the messages of human dignity, healthy relationships and authentic friendships, the Culture Project Australia was born.
These two friends have since been joined by 14 other young adults who have served full time, who between them have given 26 years to the mission of The Culture Project.
We have had more than 290 volunteers partner with us to reach over 20,000 high schoolers and thousands of young adults. All this has been possible due to the sacrificial and generous financial support of individuals and families. We’re so thankful to each person who has given their time, talent and treasure to make this mission a reality.
We believe that programs don’t change people, people change people. This is why we deeply invest in the graduates in the immersion program and those volunteering as it’s through our own personal transformation that we are able to impact those we encounter.
We have served in classrooms across Sydney, Parramatta, Wollongong, Broken Bay and regional and remote areas of NSW. We’ve run a wide variety of nights for university students and young professionals, have equipped young adults for mission in schools and have taken teams to encounter thousands at Schoolies on the Gold Coast.
We’ve spent the last 10 years refining presentations to meet a generation where they are at with the big issues of consent, relationships and our inherent dignity. We’ve witnessed the powerful and lasting impact of young adults transformed and equipped through our immersion program.
Our hope for the next 10 years is to establish Culture Project Hubs across major cities and remote regions in Australia where deep transformation of young adults can be facilitated through the immersion program. These hubs will then be able to serve the schools and local communities.
You may be wondering where Sam* is at now, in her words “At the end of the day, the truth is: hurt people hurt people. But healed people heal people. What CP gave me wasn’t just knowledge, or skills, or a chance to serve — it gave me the space to be healed and transformed. And it changed everything.”
You can be a part of this movement to transform Australia, where every person knows that they are loved and the only way to treat anyone is with love and never with use. If you would like to discover more www.thecultureproject.com.au
