Our Mission
L’Arche Southern Vermont builds community and home-based communities for life, where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are core members. They belong, and are accepted and celebrated. Mutual relationships are the heart of our community. We flourish together.
We commit ourselves to physical and emotional well-being and spiritual nourishment. We are a sign of hope and peace in our wider community and the world.
Our Vision
We believe that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities belong at the center of community, rather than its peripheries, that people of differing abilities are called into life together, and that we are all transformed when we commit to loving and serving each other.
Why this work?
Barbara, an aging parent, worries every day and night about what will happen when she can no longer care for her adult daughter Kachina at their family home.
Kachina has a developmental disability due to a rare genetic condition. She is a cheerful person who loves meeting new friends. With limited ability to express and protect herself, she cannot live independently, nor safely in many environments.
Unfortunately, quality-based living options are scarce in Vermont. Most Vermonters like Kachina who need constant supervision and care are placed in adult foster care, also called “shared living” arrangements.
Shared living placements are inherently unstable. When host families decide to no longer provide home-based care, the adult with developmental disabilities has to move out. It may mean that they are forced to move away from friends and community to a totally unfamiliar setting, contributing to feelings of isolation and loneliness. An additional challenge: there are fewer and fewer potential host families interested in opening their home, especially for folks who need attentive care around the clock.
The need for thoughtful solutions is urgent. Aging parents ache to be able to depart this world in peace, knowing their loved one with a disability is living among friends in a stable, loving home.
Our Network
L’Arche Southern Vermont is a part of L’Arche USA, which is a part of L’Arche International. Our chapter is accountable to the high standards of L’Arche USA and L’Arche International. L’Arche communities in the United States provide homes and workplaces where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together as peers; create inclusive communities of faith and friendship; and transform society through relationships that cross social boundaries.
L’Arche is a worldwide social movement, bringing individuals with disabilities into the hearts of their societies, making their voice heard, providing a true home and the opportunity to develop their unique gifts to the fullest. Today, there are 159 L’Arche communities in 38 countries. They are united by a common vision and a shared mission expressed in the official Charter of L’Arche.
The Federation seeks to foster solidarity among communities, ensure unity in diversity, establish the conditions for membership, and create conditions for trust, service, dialogue, and mutual support.
