Being friendless is the norm for Canadian children with developmental disabilities.
''A new Canadian study shows that 53 per cent of disabled kids have no friends. Only 1 per cent of children with disabilities spend an hour a day with friends. The problem is most serious for boys – who tend to have far more developmental disabilities and fewer social skills – and it gets worse with age. In childhood, efforts are made, but by the time kids hit age 10 or so, when cliques and social circles form outside of parental control, ostracization and isolation is near complete.'' (André Picard, Columnist, The Globe and Mail)
At present, very few resources exist to aid those with intellectual disabilities to learn about and actually form satisfying, mutually enriching friendships. L’Arche Canada has created an online resource to help all individuals with disabilities to have lasting friendships. This website brings together some of our learning in L’Arche and the practical wisdom, good practices and resources of some other people and organizations who generously contributed in various ways.
L’Arche Launches New Website on Friendship for Young People with Intellectual Disabilities
On November 2nd, 2011, L’Arche Canada launched an innovative, accessible and comprehensive online resource for young people with an intellectual disability, their families, teachers and others who support them. 
• Videos
• Stories
• Activities
• Documents
• Plain language
• “Listen” buttons
This new bilingual website on friendship is for young people with intellectual disabilities, their families, teachers and others who support them. It provides inspiration and information in a highly accessible format.
Most of the website is devoted to Young Adults. Resources are also provided for Families and Educators. Topics include Network Building, Inclusive Education, and Transition Planning.
Read the Press Release
Topics covered:
- What is friendship?
- Finding Friends,
- Friends Don’t Always Use Words,
- Making Plans that Work,
- Why Do We Lose Friends?
- Friendship Skills,
- Dating and Sexuality,
- and Safety.
- Download the Handbook
We Are L'Arche! L'Arche Canada's 2010-2011 Annual Report
This year, our communities' core members take centre stage in L'Arche Canada's annual report, presenting their view of the year's achievements. We hope that this approach will allow us to reach everyone with an interest in this report.
The 2010-2011 annual report is now available online. If you prefer a hard copy, please contact the office of L'Arche Canada at office@larche.ca or by calling (514) 844-1661.
L'Arche Opens Two New Homes in Antigonish, N.S.
 |
| August 3rd - Official opening with Mrs Peterson-Rafuse and Gus Luschner, executive director of L'Arche Antigonish |
L’Arche Antigonish officially opened two new homes in Antigonish this summer welcoming eight people with disabilities, all of whom will have their own private bedrooms.
The province of Nova Scotia invested $1.6 million in this project. The money is part of $19 million the government has put towards more community living spaces, day programs and similar areas in a little over two years.
“It’s very exciting to be part of a project that you know changes people’s lives, said Mrs. Peterson-Rafuse, Minister of Community Services, adding that the celebration wasn’t just for a new “structure,” but a real “home.”
L'Arche operates five communities in the Atlantic region.
L'Arche Antigonish - Facebook
L'Arche is an Extremely Successful Model says Dr. Mary Tomlinson
Dr. Mary Tomlinson, a psychiatrist who treats people with intellectual disabilities throughout Nova Scotia, told a legislative committee last week that L’Arche is an "extremely successful" model.``… Maria Desjardins said she’s convinced by her daughter’s experience at L’Arche that a better future is possible."This is only a beginning," she says."There’s a wonderful alternative in which people are living happily, growing together and learning how to be a family."`
Read Michael Tutton full article in The ChronicleHerald.ca
Is L'Arche an Important Player in the World of Disability Today ?
According to Al Etmanski, a leading advocate for people with disabilities and their families in Canada for more than two decades and one of North America's best social innovators, specializing in non-governmental solutions to social problems, ten innovations have shaped the world of disability today. Among them, L'Arche has a significant place.
Regarding L'Arche, Etmanski says, "Jean Vanier's personal commitment to live in community with people who have intellectual disabilities, broke down the major barrier between helper and helpee and replaced it with reciprocity, mutuality of relationships and recognition of our common humanity."
by L'Arche Cape Breton
''I Am ...'' was prepared by people in L’Arche Cape Breton and was adapted by L'Arche Canada Educational Office to help build understanding and community across difference.
This educational material is available for Intermediate or Senior High School Civics, Social Studies, Religion, Leadership, Guidance and comes with a 7.25 min. DVD and Teacher’s guide.
Available at cost $10.00 from pubs@larchedaybreak.com.
Share Your Story about Jean Vanier
Have you been affected by Jean Vanier? By his presence or by his vision of the human person or society? By the causes he has so diligently defended?
Then, leave a comment on our virtual wall, and let us know how Jean Vanier has touched your life.
Click here and go to Friends' Voices at www.jean-vanier.org/info/en/friends_voices
200,000 Haitians Hear From and About L'Arche on the International Day for Persons with Disabilities
 |
" It's good to see that we are able to help people who need it the most, because the earthquake was truly terrible." Antoine, L'Arche Chantal
|
On this wonderful international day devoted to celebrating people with disabilities, L'Arche Haïti adds its salt to the earth of Haitian society by participating in a radio program called Chimen Lakay, organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and presented through Télévision/Radio Guinée, a very popular commercial network. People from every level of society and in every corner of Haiti listen to it. The program is also broadcast on 41 community radio stations that are part of a community network called RAMAK. More than 200,000 people listen to this program every day!
This is not the first time that L'Arche Haïti has collaborated with the IOM. Since October, the community workshop in Chantal, in the southern part of the country, has been working on building 60 information kiosques that will be placed in the different displaced persons camps in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas. These information kiosques will help keep people informed about changes and events such as food distribution in the camp where they live. Each kiosque will also be furnished with a suggestion box.
As Antoine, one of the carpenters in the community, said to us, "It's good to see that we are able to help people who need it the most, because the earthquake was truly terrible."
|
|
|
Jean Vanier Writes to the Canadian Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care
 On October 15th, a letter from Jean Vanier 'Care of Vulnerable People' was presented to the Canadian Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care. Four days later, the L’Arche Ottawa community represented L’Arche Canada, appearing as witnesses before the Committee.
Read Jean Vanier's letter to the Committee.
Learn more about aging-and-disability.org/
|
|
The Paradox of Disability
Responses to Jean Vanier and L'Arche Communities from Theology and the Sciences
In 2007 an impressive assortment of social scientists and theologians gathered in L'Arche Trosly in France to offer responses to a question posed by L'Arche's visionary founding leader, Jean Vanier: "What have people with disabilities taught me?" Their answers are here presented in a diverse collection of essays in a book called Paradox of Disability.
The analyses and reflections, says editor Hans Reinders — like the L'Arche communities that inspired them — are not meant to set apart those with disabilities. Rather, they encourage people of all abilities humbly to acknowledge that to be human is to live with brokenness and limitation — and that to experience true community we must first learn to receive other people as God's gift.
This book came out of a project that was initiated by the John Templeton Foundation in Philadelphia and named the Humble Approach Initiative.
|
|
Mary Hynes, host of Tapestry on CBC Radio One visits L'Arche Daybreak
 |
| Mary Hynes (CBC) , David Harmon and Carl MacMillan (L'Arche Daybreak) |
Hospitality in L'Arche
In September, David Harmon and Carl MacMillan of L'Arche Daybreak were interviewed by Mary Hynes for the CBC Radio program “Tapestry”. The theme of the program was “hospitality” and they thought L’Arche would be an ideal place to do it.
Hospitality can be a risky business when it means coming face to face with the other but what does it mean for people living in L'Arche?
|
Punitive or Rehabilitative: What do we want for our Criminal Justice System?
|
|
 |
Craig Jones- The John Howard Society
|
News in recent months has alluded to legislative changes and proposed changes to the criminal justice system. We think this is a matter for urgent public debate.
In this issue, Craig Jones’ thought-provoking responses are accompanied by related materials including Harley Eagle’s interesting reflection on Restorative Justice.
Click here to read or download the Summer Issue of A Human Future
A Human Future is a free e-quaterly offered by L'Arche Canada that seeks to contribute to the public conversation about values and the shaping of the social ethos in which we live.
Click here to Subscribe to A Human Future
|
The Founder of L'Arche Deserves a Nobel Prize for His Work
|
|
It has been said that one true measure of civilization is how well we treat the most vulnerable members of our society.
If there's one man who truly understands the importance of kindness, compassion, understanding, and, as we say in Hebrew, "tikun olam," or repairing the world, it's Jean Vanier, the Founder of L'Arche .
By creating L'Arche - a remarkable and unique network of homes where the developmentally disabled live comfortably, together with volunteers and staff - Vanier has given those who are often forgotten and locked away as worthless, the miraculous opportunity to play an important role, by touching others.
Click here to read the full article in The Montreal Gazettte, April 2, 2010
|
|
L'Arche Opens New Homes in Canada
|
|
 |
|
L'Arche Joliette is welcoming new residents
|
L’Arche is about being faithful over many years to the women and men with a disability who have already found a home within L’Arche. We are also committed to opening new programs and expanding others so that more people can find a home and community within L’Arche.
Impact, the bulletin of the L'Arche Canada Foundation highlights how L’Arche is growing.
Nathan Ball, Executive Director
L'Arche Canada Foundation
Click here to download or read our Spring 2010 Impact bulletin.
|
Canadian Forces Members Work Magic for L'Arche in Carrefour, Haiti
|
|
Port-au-Prince - February 21, 2010
Over a two-day period this past week, some 40 Canadian soldiers participated in a Joint Task Force charity project at L'Arche Carrefour, one of the two L'Arche communities in Haiti.
Canadian Forces members set up a number of tents, leveled the ground, dug ditches, and brought in food and water. "It was an incredible experience for the soldiers involved, and it really made us feel as though we had made a positive contribution, reinforcing why the Canadian Forces are here," said CF chaplain Guy Belisle.
L'Arche Carrefour is located in Carrefour, the epicenter of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12. The community has 2 homes and a workshop welcoming more than 30 people living with an intellectual disability, and operates a school attended by more than 15 children affected by intellectual disabilities. Many neighbours have sought refuge in this L'Arche community since the unfolding of these tragic events.
If you wish to make a gesture of solidarity specifically in support of Haitians living with intellectual disabilities who have been affected by this catastrophe, please make your donation through the L'Arche Canada Foundation website.
|
David and Goliath: Walker Brown Chosen Over Trudeau, Levesque, and Hearst
|
|
After winning the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction last month, yesterday The Boy in the Moon was awarded the 2010 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction.
In contrast to the three other prize finalists, all portraits of famous men, Ian Brown's book tells the story of his son. Walker Brown is a 13-year-old boy living with severe intellectual and physical disabilities, whose life inspired his father's search for meaning. Walker Brown's story, difficult and somber though it is, apparently touched the members of the jury more profoundly than did those of Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, Rene Levesque, and American press magnate William Randolph Hearst.
The book also presents L'Arche in an original way, as Ian Brown's research led him to visit L'Arche Montreal and Jean Vanier at L'Arche Trosly. Brown writes that L'Arche is the model, par excellence, for those who are most vulnerable, precisely because it is utopian - society in general not being ready for such an ideal.
The winter issue of A Human Future features an interview with Ian Brown. Read A Human Future... The Boy in the Moon is also the subject of a two-part documentary aired on the CBC’s “The National” this week. Watch The National special presentation on the Boy in the Moon
|
|
|
|
When a catastrophe strikes,
people living with intellectual disabilities
are the first to be affected.
Jean Vanier
L'Arche Canada asks each and every one to make a gesture of solidarity specifically in support of Haitians living with intellectual disabilities who have been affected by this latest catastrophe.
|
|
|
| For 16 months, The Globe and Mail's Ian Brown has corresponded with Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche This is their final exchange |
|
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published on Saturday, Jan. 02, 2010 12:21PM EST
‘There is a beginning and an end to all things'
Dear Jean,
It has been months since I last wrote to you: The time seems to have evaporated in a rush of all-too-forgettable duties. Now, that busyness has come to a standstill and winter is arriving, slowing everything down and shelving my ambitions.
But perhaps I've also put off this letter because it looks like it will be our last exchange for a while, at least in public. I always feel a little nervous about stopping a communication: The time comes soon enough when we can't share our thoughts at all, so it always seems a little … profligate, to stop writing unless it is absolutely necessary.
I suppose silence always makes me think of solitude, and solitude makes me think of isolation – the loneliness of my son Walker, mute and isolated, and the spectre the intellectually disabled always bring to the surface.
Read Ian Brown Full Letter and Jean Vanier Answer in the Globe and Mail >>>
|
Toward a Social Copenhagen :
|
|
As the Copenhagen Summit proceeds, L’Arche, the PLAN Institute, and L’Agora (the Encyclopédie l’Agora) are launching a new, bilingual website focussing on the theme of belonging.
All too often, the social dimension of the deterioration of our environment is ignored. It should instead shine a spotlight on the importance of the ties of belonging to the resolution of the crisis currently shaking the planet.
At issue here are the questions of belonging to the earth and belonging to others – each one a reality characterized by extreme vulnerability. How can the social and community sectors respond to this challenge? And what contribution do the most vulnerable of people have to make?
According to Nathan Ball, Director of the L’Arche Canada Foundation, Al Etmanski, Director of the PLAN Institute, and Jacques Dufresne, philosopher and Editor of the Encyclopédie de l’Agora, the appartenance- belonging.org website stands as an invitation extended to each and every person to participate in a discussion that we cannot do without.
|
L'Arche Launches a New Website for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities
|
|
L'Arche launches a new web site for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities
In honour of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, L'Arche Canada is establishing a website celebrating the campaign theme I am inviting you! - an opportunity to hear the voices of core members themselves.
Don't forget to take a look at the site -and, especially, to watch the videos. A great big thank you goes out once again to L'Arche Haiti, El Arca del Argentina, L'Arche France, and to the team of L'Arche Cape Breton, our collaborators on this project.
|
What's the Connection Between Canadian University Football and L'Arche?
|
|
If you're a fan of Canadian university football, the Vanier Cup is no doubt familiar to you. An article in the November 26th edition of the National Post highlights the importance of this competition and of the man its name honours.
From the National Post:
"Not far from the Vanier Cup game is the tomb of the man after whom the national football championship is named - the late Georges Philias Vanier, Governor-General of Canada from 1959 until his death in 1967. Like the Grey Cup, Stanley Cup and, latterly, the Clarkson Cup, the Vanier Cup takes its name from a Governor-General, a discreet but distinctive Canadian touch, illustrating the unique role of the Crown in giving expression to our national identity.
"Georges Vanier was a great shaper of that identity, a man whose life is one of the most noble in our history. ..." Read more >>>
|
Prophets of Peace Now Curriculum across Ontario Catholic School Boards
|
|
Deiren Masterson, a past L'Arche assistant has successfully marketed two of his L'Arche videos within the Catholic School Board. The 25-minute compilation explores how the weakest, most vulnerable members of society offer a credible means to peace in a troubled world.
Both films have enjoyed national and international broadcast, festival awards, and were screened during the World Youth Day festivals in Canada and Germany. They are part of course material for the Diploma in Assisted Living: Human Care & Community at St. Francis Xavier University.
|
L'Arche Haiti : A Reporter-Photographer's Chronicle
|
|
JBG or Jonathan Boulet-Groulx is a young reporter-photographer whose ambition is to photograph and document the difficult conditions in which men, women, and children living with intellectual disabilities find themselves in countries affected by environmental catastrophes, war, or tremendous poverty.
Having now experienced his photographs of L'Arche in Haiti, you can follow Jonathan's work every week through his blog, "Mwen pas fou, Chronicles of a Young Reporter-Photographer in L'Arche Haiti."
|
Learning from Millenial Youth : An Interview with James Penner
|
|
"Millennial youth" is a sociological term for young people born in the 80s and 90s and coming into their adult years now, in this new millennium. James Penner discusses his learning from his undergraduate students and the results of Project Teen Canada 2008, the final stage in a unique series of national, bilingual research projects examining the values, attitudes, beliefs, behaviour, and expectations of Canadian teenagers. More responsible, conservative, materialistic, more concerned about the future and more steeped in the media than previous generations, this "generation Y" faces different challenges.
James Penner, veteran youth specialist, is Associate Director of Dr. Reginald Bibby's "Project Teen Canada 2008."
A Human Future is a 4-page e- quarterly published by L'Arche Canada that seeks to contribute to the public conversation about values and the shaping of the social ethos in which we live. Click here to learn more ...
|
Tangled Webs in L'Arche Homefires
|
|
Barbara Robinson has just published a book about her daughter, Sharon, who is one of the core members of Wolfville L'Arche Homefires.
The book, entitled Tangled Webs, tells the story from a mother's viewpoint of Sharon's journey from her birth in Toronto to independence from her birth family and full involvement in her new home in L'Arche at Emmaus House. way. It is a 30 years chronicle of how love, care, wisdom, bureaucracy, bigotry and prejudice all weave tangled webs through which Sharon emerges successfully as a mature woman.
"Tangled Webs" portrays the joys and difficulties encountered in nurturing, supporting and encouraging a person who has a mental challenge to be fulfilled and recognised as one who has much to contribute to our society. It is a story of love, freely given and received.
The book is available through Wolfville L'Arche Homefire's shop Applewicks. Copies can also be obtained through amazon.ca by searching for "Tangled Webs Robinson". An eBook version can be downloaded from lulu.com.
|
Diploma in Assisted Living: Human Care and Community Fall courses begin on September 14th
|
|
 |
|
This program is for individuals with experience working or living with people who have a developmental disability.
|
The Diploma in Assisted Living: Human Care and Community is a professional/personal development opportunity designed by St. Francis Xavier University in collaboration with L’Arche Canada and other experts in the field of developmental disability.
The StFX program approach has, as a guiding principal, Jean Vanier’s concept of people with a developmental disability within community.
The program incorporates both theoretical and values-based approaches to the needs of persons with a developmental disability, emphasizing building community, fostering spirituality and celebrating individual giftedness.
|
New Jean Vanier Video Online
|
|
 |
|
Marc Fèvre d'Arcier and Jean Vanier
|
In the summer of 2007 Jean Vanier gave a wonderful talk in Toronto on "healing and inner liberation" which was sponsored by the Ontario Psychotherapy and Counseling Program (OPC).
The OPC has just posted to its website a video of Jean Vanier's talk and a related interview given the following day. Click on the links below to listen to Jean Vanier :
|
| |
L'Arche needs a hand up to help out its clients
Foundation hopes to raise $1.5M a year to fund its programs both here and in Latin America
|
|
by Ramon Gonzalez
Western Catholic Reporter, June 22nd, 2009
SHERWOOD PARK - L'Arche is committed to helping create an open, inclusive and compassionate Canadian society where every person is valued and makes a contribution.
So if you want to help build such a society you should support the work of L'Arche and the vision of its founder - Jean Vanier - says Grant Kaminski, a national L'Arche leader based in Sherwood Park. L'Arche Canada has been responding to the needs of people with disabilities for close to 40 years.
Priorities Right
Kaminski says during that time, L'Arche has learned it is people with disabilities who can help us realize what's truly important in life - relationships, patience, forgiveness, love, acceptance, celebration and joy.
"People with intellectual disabilities help us get our priorities right."
Kaminski, a social worker and father of three, is the recently appointed director of development for the L'Arche Foundation, an institution created six years ago to support and extend the work of Vanier and L'Arche in Canada.
Read the full article in the Western Catholic Reporter >>>
|
|
|
|
I Would Have My Baby Nevertheless ...
|
|
A Quebec newspaper, L'Écho Abitibien, has published a lovely story about Sina Kronhardt, inspired by her relationship with André Gauthier, a core member of L'Arche Amos.
Sina is one of a group of 47 German assistants spending a year, living an experience that is both unique and profoundly human, in one of 28 L'Arche communities across Canada.
"I Would Have My Baby Nevertheless"
Martin Guindon
General - Published June 19, 2009, L'Écho Abitibien
Sina Kronhardt, a German assistant who, for the past nine months has shared a home in L’Arche Amos with five people living with an intellectual disability, says that she would carry her baby to term even if she knew the baby would be handicapped.
“I think that people may have the right to screening tests, but I don’t believe that it is necessary to do them for all women. Certainly, all parents dream of having a healthy baby. But now that I have come to know André (Gauthier), even if I learned that there was one chance in a hundred or even a thousand, I would see my pregnancy through without hesitating,” she affirmed.
She talks about André Gauthier, a core member at L’Arche who has Down’s Syndrome. André communicates by signing because he is deaf and mute. “He is very open; he doesn’t hide his emotions. He is intelligent. He has learned sign language. He is able to do just about everything anyone else can do, if you show him how. And he makes people happy. He is content simply to have your attention. He is 46 years old, but he plays like a child of five. We laugh with him. And if you know him - even a little - you don’t even need signs to understand him,” Sina insists. Twenty years old, Sina has found that people with disabilities are more warmly welcomed in Quebec than in Germany.
Click here to read the entire article as it originally appeared in French in L'Écho Abitibien
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| | What is L'Arche ? | |
|
|
|
|
|
A New Website on Jean Vanier
Jean Vanier, humanist, philosopher, theologian, man of letters is first and foremost described by his companions as a man with heart, a man of compassion. We invite you to discover the wisdom of this surprising man, who discovered how to bring a totally new light to our collective humanity by becoming supremely attentive to people affected by severe functional or intellectual disabilities. Click here to visit this new website ...
Beautiful, Strong, Unique : A Schifting Perspective On Down Syndrome
An expansive photography exhibition by Richard Bailey from the United Kingdom aims to change the way people see Down Syndrome. Watch the video.
Disability Is By Nature Anti-establishment
 According to journalist and author Ian Brown, it is the impossibility for him and his disabled son Walker (The Boy in the Moon) to “achieve” much or even disappoint each other that allows them to be who they actually are with each other, thus escaping what society says we are supposed to be.
Read Ian Brown's reflections in the the Globe and Mail (August 27th 2011).
Don't Let Intellectual Disability Scare You
Pro Infirmis Getting Closer a videoclip by Jung von Matt/Limmat
L'Arche Ontario Art Exhibit at Queen's Park
For over 40 years, the members of L’Arche in Ontario have been discovering the power of art as a way for members with intellectual disabilities to discover and express themselves, to connect with others, and to participate fully in the wider community.
The result is a wonderful exhibition full of vitality, energy – and life that was presented May 28/29 at Queen’s Park during “Doors Open Toronto.”
Click here to lear more about Jean Vanier Support Network
 |
| Illustration by Jens Bonnke |
New York Times Book Review
The Boy in the Moon
by Ian Brown,
St. Martin’s Press.
Excerpt from Roger Rosenblatt's article published May 5t, 2011
Brown rejects the idea of his son’s life “reduced to a typing error in a three-billion-long chain of letters.” Life is more complicated than a genome. He learns more from his travels in France, and in Canada, his home country, where he consults those who have given their lives to both aiding and learning from the disabled. People like the researcher Gilles Le Cardinal and Jean Vanier, who has created networks of support groups and communities for the afflicted, teach him much about Walker’s hidden mind. The 82-year-old Vanier, who founded L’Arche (after Noah’s ark), an international organization of communities for the intellectually disabled, believes that the severely disabled challenge us by their existence. They implicitly ask, “Do you consider me human?” They suggest how arduous it is to be human. They remind us of death.
Click here to go to the New York Times article
Jean Vanier, Living True to His Word
We invite you today to visit a new online resource about Jean Vanier and his work, produced by L’Arche International. Learn more about the man, the message, the works. Click here ...
Read our Annual Report 2009-2010
Every year L’Arche in Canada has a transformative impact on the lives of many women and men with intellectual disabilities in almost 200 small homes and day settings across Canada. To bettter understand the work of L'Arche Canada, read our annual report.
Official Opening of L'Arche New Home in L'Arche Haïti
14 months after the earthquake, L'Arche Carrefour open a new home in Port-au-Prince. Thanks to our donors, this work has been highly efficient and successful. To learn more about the reconstruction of L'Arche Haiti, please click here.
|
Letter from the Director of the L'Arche Canada Foundation
Today our people in Haiti are struggling
In 1976 the Haitian ambassador to Canada asked Jean Vanier if he would start L’Arche in
Haiti. For over 30 years L’Arche has been active in Haiti providing homes, communities and
other supports to people with intellectual disabilities. Unfortunately, when a catastrophe strikes, people living with intellectual disabilities are the first to be affected. Today, we need your help to reconstruct L'Arche Haiti. Make a gift to L'Arche Haiti.
L’Arche Canada is proud to join Education Alberta in announcing the launch of a new Online high school Social Studies Resource on Jean Vanier
|
The resource, titled “Jean Vanier: A Canadian Inspiring the World”, gives ready access to some of the best thinking of this acclaimed social visionary, humanitarian and founder of the L’Arche movement. “We are thrilled to make this material available,” says Alberta Education’s Curriculum Manager, Karen LaRone. The resource was developed by the Program Development and Standards Division, Alberta Education and is delivered via the LearnAlberta.ca Web site.
Read more | Dowload press release |
|
| L'Arche is a place of belonging |
 L'Arche is a place of belonging for people living with a disability and those who share life with them. Since 1964, men and women of good will, with and without intellectual disability, are commiting to each other in L'Arche to break down the barriers of fears that separate us and to create new places of belonging where everyone is important and can contribute.
|
| Live an experience that is out of the ordinary |
 Are you creative, responsible, open? We invite you to live and work with people with an intellectual disability. More than a job, we offer you an experience, an adventure, an apprenticeship that will benefit you for the rest of your life. Discover that every human life, limited though it may be, is worth celebrating.
Listen to what our assistants are saying
|
| L'Arche is an international movement |
Everywhere around the world where L'Arche exists, men and women who live with an intellectual disability share a common culture of the heart and, in their own way, constitute one people.
Although their intellectual capacities may be limited, these men and women, indifferent to success, competition or performance have developed qualities of the heart that can lead us to a renewed understanding of our fundamental and common humanity.
|
| Mwen pa fou - L'Arche Haiti A Photographer-Reporter`s Chronicle |
|
 As Jonathan tries to travel back to Port-au-Prince to prepare the photo exhibit, he meets unexpected obstacles at the airport. Read his latest post : Maria, Peter, Jacques and Hélène.
At the bottom of the heart of every human being, from earliest infancy until the tomb, there is something that goes on indomitably expecting, in the teeth of all experience of crimes committed, suffered, and witnessed, that good and not evil will be done to him. It is this above all that is sacred in every human being.
|
|
|
| | Daily thought | Hope and Love
 I marvel sometimes when I visit families with a son or a daughter who has a severe handicap. The parents are living each day, and sometimes the whole day, with little help or times of rest. They... |
| |
|
|