On People with Intellectual Disabilities

L’Arche makes it possible for our perceptions regarding disability and vulnerability to be transformed. Since our founding, L’Arche has illuminated the gifts of people with intellectual disabilities and affirmed their inherent dignity and worth. L’Arche believes everyone has something valuable to contribute, even the most vulnerable. Our weaknesses and vulnerabilities are not to be hidden from others, but welcomed and shared.

On Young Lives

Mutually transformative relationships form the heart of L’Arche. All of us, whether or not we live with an intellectual disability, desire a sense of belonging. In L’Arche, people of differing intellectual capacities, social origins, religions, and cultures build relationships rooted in trust and vulnerability. By sharing daily life together, community members experience L’Arche as a “University for the Heart,” where they learn true friendship and teach one another to love unconditionally.

On Our Community

L’Arche Jacksonville is active and involved in what’s going on in the city and elsewhere. Cheering at sporting events, attending plays, concerts, movies, dining out, making friends with the baristas at a favorite coffee shop, and participating in retreats around the country.