L’Arche Communities:
There are 154 L’Arche communities in 38 countries around the World in the International Federation of L’Arche. L’Arche Ireland was founded in 1978 and provides 11 residential dwellings, 2 Day projects services, social enterprise opportunities and outreach services and is part funded through the HSE in the Republic of Ireland.
L’Arche offers services to people with various disability diagnoses and support needs. Disability diagnoses include Intellectual Disability, ASD, Autism, Physical Disability, Sensory Disability, and Mental Health Support needs.
Each Core Member has an individual needs assessment which outlines their specific level of required support.
L’Arche with adults who have a disability (Core Members) provide Residential services and Day projects. L’Arche is a community which ensures that each Core member has a safe, person-centred, high-quality service and supports individuals to have access to the services they need to maximise independence and choice and enable them to lead a fulfilling life.
L’Arche offers relationship-based care as the foundation of all that we do. L’Arche see this basic right as fundamental to each Core member’s wellbeing and healthy development. Our Day Projects offer the opportunity to access a range of supports and activities on a one-to-one basis and in a peer group setting.
Activities vary across each community, depending on the interests of the people who attend each service. Some examples include art and crafts, drama, horticulture, leisure activities, cookery, independent living skills, sports, dancing, group excursions and much more.
Core members and staff members work in partnership to ensure ease of communication, a respect for individuality, dignity, and privacy, and to ensure encouragement to achieve aspirations and goals. L’Arche strives to empower and enable Core members to achieve these rights. L’Arche services have adopted a person-centred approach which supports the delivery of high quality, safe and effective care to people with different abilities.
We believe that this approach involves good leadership, skilled and experienced staff, and the effective management of resources.
Across Ireland, Northern Ireland and around the world, L’Arche creates communities of friendship and belonging.
Each Residential service is registered and governed by “HIQA” as per the Health Act 2007. HIQA, the regulatory body, offer regulation and guidance to residential services.
HIQA monitor and inspect residential services for people with disabilities to ensure that services provide residents with the quality and standard of service that is appropriate to their needs.
Each residential service in L’Arche Ireland is operating in compliance of HIQA standards and are certified accordingly. The Day project services, and social enterprise are working in line with New Direction standards. L’Arche are adopting the HSE New Directions policy that sets out how Day service supports adults living with disabilities.
L’Arche Day projects can help people with a disability to embrace the life they want, fulfil potential, and feel immersed within their community.
These words, spoken by a core member at L’Arche, are at the start of the new Mandate for L’Arche Ireland which runs until 2028. This mandate reflects the key themes that emerged from the process of consultation that took place in the Cork, Dublin and Kilkenny communities in 2023:
‘Fostering a community environment where people feel secure and at home.’
‘Claiming and deepening our Christian roots and ethos, whilst remaining open to all religious or non-religious traditions.’
‘Fostering an environment that responds to the changing needs of the members.’
‘Developing and deepening mutually enriching relationships with the environment.’
It was a great privilege for me to be asked to lead L’Arche Ireland into its next stage of development and I took up post at the start of 2024. It has been a delight to begin to get to know people in all of the communities and to see that the L’Arche values of welcome, inclusion, and celebration are alive and well in houses and day services; and at the same time I have been reassured to see the great work that is being done to ensure compliance in a highly regulated environment.
I am grateful to all those who make our L’Arche communities such vibrant, joyful and safe places. And may our communities continue to enable people to live their best lives, to allow mutually-transforming relationships to flourish, and where we can also respond well and creatively to changing needs.
I am grateful to the Board and to those others who give voluntarily of their time and expertise. And finally, I am grateful to all who support and fund our work, in particular to the HSE.
May we be a little sign of hope in our troubled and divided world.
Eddie Gilmore, CEO of L’Arche Ireland
Make known the gifts of people with intellectual disabilities, revealed through mutually transforming relationships.
Foster an environment in community that responds to the changing needs of our members, whilst being faithful to the core values of our founding story.
Engage in our diverse cultures, working together toward a more human society.
L’Arche was founded in France in 1964 by Canadian Jean Vanier* (1929-2019). The story of L’Arche started over 50 years ago in the village of Trosly-Breuil in northern France, in response to the inhumane conditions of the large institutions where people with intellectual disabilities had been placed. Now, L’Arche is present in over 38 countries across the world. In 2021, L’Arche International published the findings of an external enquiry commissioned by L’Arche, which brought into question Jean Vanier’s abusive behaviour toward a number of non-disabled women. L’Arche International condemns his actions unreservedly.
L’Arche Ireland belongs to the International Federation of L’Arche linking us to the Communities of L’Arche in 37 countries around the world. The Federation pioneers the aspirations, structures and strategic directions that unite L’Arche around the world as well as the principles that guide us: leadership, solidarity, and accountability.
L’Arche Irelands timeline of growth and development together…
1978: The L’Arche Kilkenny Community started in 1978 when we officially opened Moorefield house supported accommodation, our first L’Arche house in the country! The Kilkenny community now includes a beautiful horticultural project in Kilmoganny, Culinary skills teaching in L’Arche Café and Day project opportunities.
1985: L’Arche Cork was born when three Core members moved into their home ‘An Croí’ in the heart of Cork. Since, this L’Arche Community has grown incredibly, now providing five supported accommodation services and the Le Cheile Day project in Togher Cork City.
1993: L’Arche Dublin began in 1993 and now comprises of 3 Community houses: Seolta, Leoithne and Báidin. All the houses are in the beautiful sea front location of Warren house Road, Baldoyle, Dublin 13
L’Arche International announces findings of Independent Inquiry
On February 22nd, 2020, the leaders of L’Arche International sent a letter to the Federation of L’Arche Communities, which operates in 38 countries worldwide, publishing the results of an inquiry that had commissioned from an independent organization. The inquiry included testimony implicating its founder, Jean Vanier, and his historical link to Father Thomas Philippe, who he thought of as his spiritual father.
>> link to full article >>
“L’Arche Dublin was a blessing to me; a very precious pearl, that was donated unexpectedly to my life. I requested the community to join as an assistant to contribute actively with my work and get a safe and comfortable place.
However, it turned to be much more than that! I got the opportunity to enter the very personal moments of the core-members: the morning and night routines, were I learned bits of technical medical knowledge, but especially took care in the very sense of the expression of them.
It wasn’t easy at first: a person was relying on me, physically and emotionally. At first it was overwhelming. But with time I learned, and not only how to do core-members routines, but many other useful jobs: how to cook for many people, how to drive the core-members around in county Dublin and even outside…”
Daniele from Italy
T. +353 (0)56 7755494
E. admin.central@larche.ie
L’Arche Ireland
‘An Siol’, 42 West Street
Callan,
Co. Kilkenny
R95 E368
