“We provide care for people with intellectual disabilities, yes, but those people with intellectual disabilities also provide care for me. Their unique gifts sustain me.” – Luke Smith, L’Arche GWDC Executive Director
Since 1983, L’Arche Greater Washington, D.C. has supported community life in homes where individuals with and without intellectual disabilities live together. We celebrate the unique value of every person, recognizing and accepting our need of one another and building relationships that transform all of us.
As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, L’Arche GWDC provides housing and support services to adults with intellectual disabilities, and serves hundreds of people in the wider community, of many different backgrounds, by offering a place of belonging and growth. Our community life centers on relationships, led by “core members,” the adults with intellectual disabilities who live in L’Arche homes. People come from all over the country and the world to visit L’Arche and learn from core members, our mission, and our model.
L’Arche is unique among residential providers in that core members and assistants (people without intellectual disabilities who support core members) choose to live together like a family. In our four homes, two in DC and two in Arlington, we eat, play, learn, laugh, grieve, and pray together. We do with and not for – growing and supporting one another in a mutually transformative way.
This year we are celebrating 37 years of community with the Heart of L’Arche fundraiser.
Please join us as a sponsor.