Report a concern

L’Arche USA is committed to ensuring that every L’Arche community and workplace is safe. We offer this reporting line for reports that are national in scope. While it is usually most helpful for community incidents to be reported locally, this reporting line is an additional place for someone to make a report. Please fill out the following form to report safeguarding misconduct you have experienced, witnessed, or received a report of, whether in a L’Arche community, workplace, or event. Such misconduct can include but is not limited to physical abuse, harassment, and sexual abuse. You can submit a report for both past incidents as well as current ones.

Note that L’Arche USA and local communities have other avenues to report financial, HR or other general complaints. Please consider those first if you have access and are comfortable to do so. Reports of a non-safeguarding nature received by the iReport Team will be referred to the right authority.

If you provide your contact information, it will not be shared with anyone without your agreement. If you agree, it will only be shared with individuals that need to know in order to follow-up on incidents that are reported. Individuals who choose to file anonymous reports are advised that it may be very difficult for L’Arche to follow up and/or take action on reports where corroborating information is limited, but the report does allow a chance to record and track the concern raised.

Please call 911 (Emergency) or 988 (Crisis/Suicide lifeline) if you are experiencing an acute crisis.

When you submit an iReport form through the L’Arche USA website, a notification is sent to our iReport Team, a group of external people. Members of the National Leadership Team are alerted that a report has been submitted but do not have access to the contents of that submission. 

The iReport Team serve as liaisons between the complainant (that’s you – the person making the report) and L’Arche to offer a first review of the complaint and to determine where it can best be referred. They will not share identifying information with L’Arche unless the complainant consents to do so. 

If a complainant has provided contact information, the report recipients will follow up within 3 business days to consult about the complainant’s desire to identify or not identify themselves to investigators, to whom they wish to be identified or not, to consult about potential actions and to keep the person updated throughout the process. 

With the information provided, the team assesses who is the most appropriate body to ensure investigation, usually one that is equipped to do the work and is as close as possible to the incident without being impeded by conflict. Note that when an incident involves a vulnerable adult or criminal activity, the matter will usually need to be referred to adult protective service regulators or local law enforcement.

The iReport reports are not accessible to anyone employed by L’Arche. They are accessible to the iReport Team through a password protected account. 

If information is passed on in an anonymous basis, the information can help inform L’Arche of types and frequency of complaints. Individuals who choose to file anonymous reports are advised that it may be very difficult for L’Arche to follow up and/or take action on anonymous reports, where corroborating information is limited.

These confidential report recipients are professionals, skilled in safeguarding, confidentiality, assessment and referral practices. They have been confirmed to the team by the L’Arche USA Safeguarding Commission. To protect their privacy, we do not identify them here. They act as a team to review report submissions and decide recommended referrals. They will consult with appropriate L’Arche authorities as needed to effectively make their inquiries and referrals. They will not share identifying information without the permission of complainants.