“I belong here, most certainly do, everybody does, here in this world. Yup, everybody does.”
Relationships are at the heart of our movement. Members of L’Arche build connections through initiatives like shared living, daily support, and vocational programs. This creates unique personal and professional development opportunities for all L’Arche members while improving their greater communities.
L’Arche USA produces accessible public resources to elevate awareness, understanding, and conversations about disability.
Our mission
We believe in a society where everyone’s humanity is rightly known, people are holders of their full human rights, and everyone’s gifts are celebrated.
For humankind, community is our most powerful resource. We believe authentic, welcoming relationships are transformative and can change the world.
Together with people with intellectual disabilities, we are building a world of inclusion and belonging.
Our network
For six decades, L’Arche has been building an extensive network of support – people across the full expression of human abilities and disabilities joining together in communities around the world to create a society where no one is left behind.
There are over 150 L’Arche communities in 37 countries across 5 continents all united by a common vision expressed in the official Charter of L’Arche and the federation of L’Arche International. At the core of L’Arche USA are our members and communities in the United States.
L’Arche offers community-based shared living, professional direct support, vocational services, and personalized daily planning to ensure our members have full and equal access to and means for participation in their chosen faith communities, leisure or recreational activities, and social and civic interests. L’Arche communities bring people with and without intellectual disabilities together as peers, transforming society through relationships that cross social boundaries.
L’Arche USA build’s circles of support and partnerships to grow the network of care, learning, and advocacy on behalf of our members and society. We also produce public education and awareness materials to elevate the stories, perspectives, and interests of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in our world.
From an even wider lens, L’Arche today operates as a worldwide social movement, creating change through numerous local partnerships and on a global level through our earned consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council to advance the goals of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities.
L’Arche USA focus areas
- Lengthy waiting lists call for critically needed professional services and community-based housing
- A national epidemic of loneliness plagues our country resulting in the U.S. Surgeon General to urge all of us to take action now
- Character and compassion in society is not a given and poor examples and influences abound – the call for leadership is now
L’Arche USA supports a network of local communities across the U.S.
We work to launch new communities and to ensure sustainability and continuing growth for current member groups. We promote capacity-building through collaborative and innovative partnerships and focus on the essential work of recruitment, fundraising, and the realities of navigating societal blockades and barriers when they arise.
Every L’Arche community is part of a global movement to bring forward a changed world.
Learning is a vital part of our mission.
L’Arche USA is committed to the personal, professional, and spiritual growth of our members. At L’Arche, daily experiential learning works in tandem with formal opportunities for education and professional training, peer support group work, and personal reflection and retreat.
L’Arche USA produces and delivers a wide array of trainings, retreats, and virtual resources including webinars and an online resource library.
Our core curriculum elevates safeguarding, disability inclusion, community, and professional practices and is framed with key themes: our core values, leadership, diversity, and spirituality.
One of the unique benefits of being part of a global network is that we are able to fluently share our knowledge, experiences, and practices across a vast diversity of locations, friends, and partners – we use peer practice groups to enrich our work and maximize the application in society.
We prioritize a universal learning methodology and work hard to ensure learning events and tools are accessible and user-friendly. We use storytelling and a diversity of learning resources and teachers. And we employ formal evaluation methods to ensure they work.
Importantly, L’Arche USA is committed to investing in disability leadership and the leadership of community members in society. We support the training, preparation, and accompaniment of leaders throughout our organization.
Personal experience is transformative
Experience between people across differences is essential to elevating our awareness for one another, changing perceptions and reducing prejudices, and creating change in personal behavior and structural policy.
People behind the movement
And we recognize the power and importance of telling our stories and that each person has a unique story to tell. We dedicate ourselves to bringing the personal stories of our members and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in society to the forefront.
Partnerships are key
Public education and engagement is core to our work. Our team works to broaden societal engagement by partnering with families and friends, academic and civic organizations, communities of faith, and other organizational partners to promote dialogue, learning, and impact.
