 L'Arche
is a unique vision of care giving and community building that
fosters inclusion, understanding and belonging.
In nearly 200 small homes and day settings
across Canada, caregivers and volunteers from diverse cultures
and backgrounds share deeply committed relationships with
people with developmental disabilities.
L'Arche is an international organization
of faith-based communities creating homes and day programs
with people who have developmental disabilities.
As a service organization, L'Arche espouses
a "community model" of living, rather than a medical or social
service model of care.
At L'Arche, people with disabilities, and
those who assist them, live together and are equally responsible
for the life of their home and community.
On this page, Zoël Breau, L'Arche Canada's
National Coordinator, shares how this movement for change
fosters inclusion, understanding, and belonging.
 Zoël
Breau is the National Coordinator for L’Arche Canada,
the umbrella organization that unites and serves the 28 L’Arche
communities across Canada. He has held this position since
1998.
Zoël was born into an Acadian family
in Tracadie-Sheila in New Brunswick. Through a youth group
he came into contact with L’Arche and was drawn to the
people with intellectual disabilities whom he met there.
In 1978, after high school, he joined L’Arche
Saint-Malachie in rural Quebec, as a volunteer in one of its
homes. He returned to school to study Theology at Laval University
from 1980 to 1983. He then became a volunteer in L’Arche
Vancouver. There, he held many roles: house assistant, house
leader and later, Executive Director of L’Arche Greater
Vancouver. From 1988 to 1993, he was Coordinator for L’Arche
in Western Canada and the Western USA, and he served as a
member of the International Council of L’Arche.
In 1994, Zoël decided to return to being
a house assistant to be close to the people living the daily
life of L’Arche, and he also coordinated an international
event for L’Arche called ‘Sign of Home,’
held in Seattle. This event brought together many L’Arche
members from around the world—people with and without
disabilities--in Seattle. From 1996 to 1998, Zoel was Vice-Coordinator
for L’Arche Canada.
Today, as National Coordinator he is also
member of the International Council and Board of L’Arche.
He resides in Montreal.
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About L'Arche
In 1964 Jean Vanier invited two men with
developmental disabilities, Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux,
to live with him in a small house in the French village of
Trosly-Breuil. He named their house “L'Arche,”
after Noah's Ark.
Before long they welcomed more men and women
with developmental disabilities and many young assistants
from various countries including Canada who wanted to help
and to share in this unique experience of living in community.
Jean began to realize the importance of these
relationships in his life. And encouraged people to bring
L'Arche home with them.
As L'Arche grew, it opened other homes in
the village and started small work projects and creative studios
where fine hand-crafted items were made.
In 1969, the first community outside France
opened in Canada.
L'Arche has nearly 200 homes and day settings
in different L'Arche
communities located across Canada, from Vancouver Island
to Cape Breton.
L'Arche has grown to an international federation
of 130 communities. There are L'Arche communities in 30 countries
on 6 continents. Average community size includes three to
seven homes of generally eight people, five people with developmental
disabilities and 3 assistants. L'Arche communities consist
of homes, schools and work settings.
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L'Arche: The
Movement
Jean Vanier discovered that the people whom
he had befriended had much to give him and to teach him about
life. This awareness of the mutuality of relationships and
the humanizing contribution of people who have developmental
disabilities -- indeed the transformative experience of sharing
life together -- is fundamental to L'Arche and is what continues
to attract many of the assistants who come to L'Arche.
Relationships of transformation are at the
core of all movements for change. Change happens when the
relationship becomes an inspiration for others.
Three years ago, L'Arche began a process
to try to name who the organization is today and what its
mission is. We sent a questionnaire to L’Arche communities
around the world to reflect and tell their stories. The three
themes that came out strongly were: Relationship, Transformation,
Becoming a Sign.
L'Arche is about personal change that leads
to social change. We can not live this experience for ourselves
alone.
When we are in a relationship of equality
with people of disability, the relationship transforms us
– it becomes a “relationship of mutuality”
– we are both transformed. It’s the difference
between doing for somebody and being with
somebody.
When we perceive that we are "helping"
someone we have a certain kind of relationship with them,
a relationship in service. But you can't live with someone
and "do charity". The relationship of mutuality
becomes a place of belonging for everyone involved, from the
staff assistants, to the families of those living in the community,
to the board.
One of the gifts of L'Arche is a reassessment
of the abilities of the members of the community
who have a developmental disability. But when we enter into
a mutual relationship, we begin to see the gifts of those
in community with us.
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Leadership &
Movements
L’Arche was founded by Jean Vanier,
and so much of the movement has developed around his persona
and charisma. L'Arche therefore, has a special challenge as
a movement, given that it is so often identified with such
a dynamic leader.
Jean Vanier will always be L'Arche's founder.
He is a great leader who inspires respect, and L'Arche is
blessed to have him present and active, contributing his wisdom
in the most humble ways.
But all good movements become bigger than
their founders. L'Arche has now become bigger than its founder.
L'Arche has created a structure that holds
the vision and the mission, it is not dependent on any one
person. The challenge is to create spaces and places for each
member of L'Arche to be able to articulate and pronounce the
L'Arche vision for the future.
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Reconciling the
Local, National & International
L’Arche is an international, national
and local movement. At each level has its own goals, mission
and way of working that fits within the larger L'Arche movement.
Each local community has its own goals and
mission. When Zoël visit L’Arche communities, they
always request that he speak about L’Arche communities
around the world.
They want to know and feel how what they
do in their daily lives, what they see in Quebec or Vancouver,
etc., connects to the bigger world. Knowing what’s happening
elsewhere helps them make sense of what they do each day.
It also provides inspiration.
When Zoël goes to the International
Board meetings for L’Arche, he learns a lot, but he
also can share resources and tools from L’Arche Canada
with the international community. For example, “More
than Inclusion” is being used in the Middle East to
help explain to the Muslim community what L'Arche is and the
mission of the organization.
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top.
Thoughts for Further
Exploration
We asked Zoël if there are any questions
or ideas about movements he would like us to think about.
Zoël reflected on the notion of diversity.
More and more we work with other organizations and movements.
He wondered how we can honour diversity but remain clear on
a common mission? How we can be clear about what unites, and
what differentiates us?
L'Arche has never described itself as a
movement, but it was part of the deinstitutionalization movement,
and then part of the normalization movement. Today, what is
the movement? Zoël thinks there's a movement evolving
within L'Arche, a movement of belonging.
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Moving Forward
We live in a world where there is not a
lot of hope. Personal change can bring social change. The
ultimate change Zoël hopes to see is L'Arche become a
place where the change of the heart is possible. In L'Arche
homes, a sense of belonging emerges. Zoël hope to open
the doors of the houses and invite people to the table, to
extend the movement and the gift of knowledge and belonging.
As more movements recognize each other,
they begin to change people’s hearts - we need to feel
those changes in this fragile world.
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top.
- Visit the L'Arche website
for:
- L'Arche's partner, L'Encyclopédie
de L'Agora, focuses on the theme of "L'inaptitude"
(in French)
- Intercordia
Canada - At the initiative of Jean Vanier, Intercordia
is a sister organization which promotes cultural sensitivity
and moral responsiveness in students and encourages them
to discover a more compassionate worldview in partnership
with five canadian universities.
- The
Importance of Social Capital - This article on the
Philia website reflects on the concept of social capital
and the importance in the world of connecting people together.
- End
Exclusion - This Canada-wide initiative celebrates
the successes of people with disabilities.
- The
Belonging Initiative - The Belonging Initiative is
a group of collaborators looking for ways to foster a
culture of belonging and thereby affect massive change
to end the isolation and loneliness of people with disabilities.
L'Arche Canada is a founding partner
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