L'Arche Association of Lethbridge offers residential support to adults with a developmental disability in the Lethbridge area, and currently operates two homes in the southern part of the city. It provides support to individuals with a wide range of abilities. Some individuals are independent in many areas, while others need assistance with all aspects of daily living. The staffing model consists primarily of live-in assistants. Four core members and up to four assistants typically live in each home. L'Arche Association of Lethbridge also employs respite workers, a community coordinator, a training coordinator, and an executive director to support the individuals living in the homes. L'Arche Association of Lethbridge is a non-profit organization that is accountable to a volunteer board of directors.

Adults with a developmental disability (core members) who come to live at L'Arche Association of Lethbridge are generally those who do not have the ability and/or the desire to live independently in their own apartment or home. Instead, they are gifted and/or have the desire to live a more communal reality with a 6-8 other people of varying skills and abilities. Four Core Members and 3-4 assistants would typically live in each home. In this context, all individuals are encouraged in a variety of ways to take fuller responsibility for their lives at all levels: physically, emotionally, spiritually, vocationally, and relationally. In addition, and just as importantly, all individuals are encouraged to appreciate and celebrate the unique gifts and abilities they possess and/or can develop to enrich their own lives, the lives of those around them, and the society at large.

L'Arche provides a warm and supportive "family" style environment. The homes look and feel like "real" homes. Core Members who do best at L'Arche Association of Lethbridge are those who are able to live more or less comfortably with the inevitable ebb and flow of a large and busy household.

L'Arche Association of Lethbridge attracts qualified assistants from all over the world to come and live in its homes. At any given time, assistants living in the home would come from Canada, as well as 4-6 other countries. The educational level of these assistants is quite high. A recent survey of North American L'Arche communities discovered that over 60% of live-in assistants have completed at least a Bachelor's degree. An assistant typically remains in the home for 1-3 years.

L'Arche Association of Lethbridge is also a permanent member of the International Federation of L'Arche consisting of 121 communities in 30 countries on six continents. It is one of the 23 communities that comprise L'Arche Canada. Finally, through its participation in the "Western Canada Region," L'Arche Association of Lethbridge is linked in a particular way to the L'Arche communities in Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Comox Valley. As a L'Arche Community, L'Arche Association of Lethbridge is in agreement with the principles and responsibilities reflected in the "Charter of the Communities of L'Arche" and "The Identity and Mission of L'Arche Canada." It is accountable for these principles and responsibilities to the L'Arche International Board of Directors, and the L'Arche Canada Board of Directors.

L'Arche Association of Lethbridge describes itself as an ecumenical Christian community. A short time of prayer often follows the evening meal, and the community gathers every Tuesday night for a time of prayer led by ministers from a variety of denominations, or by L'Arche Association of Lethbridge community members. We believe that God is a living reality and presence in the life of our community and each individual who has chosen to be a part of it. Having a spiritual life is therefore important for many individuals. We believe it is important to give individuals the opportunities and the resources to deepen their relationship with God if they so choose.

L'Arche began in 1964 when Canadian Jean Vanier, with the support of his spiritual director Father Thomas Philippe, invited two men with a developmental disability, Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, to live with him in an old house in the French village of Trosly-Breuil. He named the house L'Arche after Noah's Ark and gradually welcomed not only more men and women with developmental disabilities but also the assistants who would live and work with them. Similarly, L'Arche Association of Lethbridge began in 1991 when three persons with a developmental disability (core members), and two assistants began living together in a house in south Lethbridge.

This invitation for core members and assistants to live together is at the heart of L'Arche Association of Lethbridge, and L'Arche around the world. Living together in a L'Arche Community, however, is more than sharing space and responsibilities as room mates. Rather, core members and assistants are invited to engage in real, appropriately intimate, and honest relationships in which the value and vocation of each person in the home is revealed to themselves, their companions, and the world around them. A L'Arche community is functioning as it should when, through the relationships between the individuals in the home, each person has a growing sense of their own worth, their own value, and the gifts and abilities they have to offer to their home, their work, and society at large.

There is no fundamental distinction between core member and assistant, abled and "dis"abled persons, when it comes to being fully human. We all need help to learn what it means to live to our full potential, to live from a place of freedom rather than fear, to know how to give and receive love in healthy ways, to confidently claim and celebrate who we are and who we are becoming, to know how to die in peace and dignity, etc. Each person in the community has specific and unique gifts to share with others on this journey to becoming fully human. And so core members offer their gifts to other core members and the assistants they live with. Assistants offer their gifts to core members and the other assistants they live with. Core Members and assistants grow together in their sense of self-worth and "belovedness," and in their confidence that they have a role in making their home, their block, their city, their world, a better place. Each one of us has a mission and purpose in life. The primary purpose of our relationships in L'Arche is to help each core member and assistant move towards a fuller realization of that mission and purpose.

While this journey together has many wonderful moments, the relationships can also be difficult and challenging at times. This is not a bad thing. It is the stuff of real life and real relationships and the costs of avoiding the difficult moments are ultimately higher than the cost of living and learning through them.

The following story is an example of what all of this means. A woman had lived in a L'Arche community for many years. During that time, she had learned to do a lot of things. She was a great baker, organizer, and cleaner who took enormous pride and responsibility for her home. She was an active member of her church and well known in the shops on the street near her home. She had lived semi-independently in her earlier years. As she aged, however, she needed more help and so had moved into a home where there were more assistants to help maintain her quality of life.

What this woman found very difficult was the constant change of assistants in the home. Assistants would come and live with her for and year or two, and then move on. New assistants would take their place until they too moved on. When Jean Vanier was making a visit to the community, she asked him very directly. "Why do assistants leave so often? It's hard when they leave, and I don't like it."

Jean Vanier looked at her for a moment before responding. "It is painful when assistants come and go," he said. "But do you know that you have a mission? Your mission is to welcome assistants into your home and teach them to be better people. Your mission is to touch the heart of each assistant you welcome into your home so that when they leave they are more loving, more welcoming, more compassionate, and more responsible than when they came. Your mission is to welcome people, to love and care for them, and then send them back into the world to be better doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, truck drivers, parents, brothers, sisters, and citizens than they would have been if they had never met you. It is a reality that assistants leave, and it's painful when they do. But that's your mission: to welcome, to send, and then to welcome again. Even though it's painful, it's a beautiful mission, and hundreds of people around the world will never forget the contribution you have made in their lives."

What is the meaning of my life? Why do I do what I do? Does anybody care about me? To whom am I important, and why? How can I understand the pain in my life so that it makes me more, rather than less, human? These are universal questions. They are the questions core members and assistants have as they live together. The most important part of sharing life together in L'Arche Association of Lethbridge are the small (and sometimes big!) steps each person takes towards the answer to these questions.

"Change the world one heart at a time. The first could be your own." In a world that is searching for community and meaning, L'Arche is a sign that community is possible. In a world that is full of violent conflict, L'Arche is a sign that it is possible for people of different abilities, nationalities, and faiths to live and grow together. The world can become a better place, one relationship, one heart at a time.

L'Arche will provide meaningful opportunities to individuals. Individuals will be connected to community resources and will have opportunities similar to those of other citizens in the community.

An extensive body of evidence exists to support the reality that the healthy participation of individuals in society is closely connected with healthy relationships at home. This is true for all people at all stages of life, whether or not they live with a developmental disability. A healthy relationship can be broadly defined as being loved and accepted for who one is, while at the same time being encouraged to grow in a consistent, caring, non-coercive, and non-violent manner. Such relationships are, in fact, what define "home" for most people.

It is in the context of warm, caring, and supportive relationships that individuals best acquire the life skills, the relational skills, and the emotional maturity and flexibility required to live a meaningful life in society. The most fundamental support L'Arche Association of Lethbridge offers is its commitment to provide the atmosphere and resources (physical, emotional, and spiritual) that facilitates these kinds of relationships between assistants and core members, and between core members themselves. Relationships are central. To be effective, life plans, learning goals, behavioral interventions, and all other interventions and processes involving core members must be embedded in the context of these caring and supportive relationships. Authentic relationships are encouraged and expected between core members, assistants, families and guardians. We are accountable to each other for our relationships.

These relationships are crucial in discerning what a particular core member needs and desires. A person's goals cannot be known if they themselves are not "known." If there are no affective, caring relationships present in an individual's life, their goals, even if known, are usually not honored in the way they need to be. If a person is not known and cared for, they are usually "done for." L'Arche Association of Lethbridge is committed to doing as little "for" core members as possible. We strive to do as much as possible, even the most intimate of personal routines, "with" the core members. This is one of the best guarantees we know of to ensure that each individual has maximum control and influence over the course of their life.

Relationships outside of the community of the home are also important. These relationships are also more successful (generally) when individuals live in a home where they know, and are learning, how to participate in caring and respectful relationships with a variety of different people. As their interests and abilities allow, core members are encouraged and helped to participate in church communities, social clubs, recreational activities, educational opportunities, etc. As they are able and interested, core members are also encouraged and helped to develop relationships with bank tellers, store clerks, bus drivers, etc. as they participate as fully as possible in their own banking, shopping, transportation, and other aspects of daily living.

The live-in L'Arche model offers some "unique" possibilities for societal integration and opportunities. Firstly, because the assistant's home is also the core member's home there are no shift changes. This offers a significant amount of flexibility to be able to respond to the needs and desires of the core member. Activities and opportunities can be contemplated with minimal consideration as to how they interact with the staffing schedule. If a process or activity has begun it is often possible to let it run its natural course without the artificial boundary of a shift change.

Secondly, L'Arche Association of Lethbridge provides opportunities for assistants living with core members in a L'Arche home to voice and fulfill their own needs. Not everything that an assistant needs and/or likes to do can be scheduled in their fairly limited personal time. More importantly, what the assistant needs to live a healthy life is not dissimilar to what core members need to live a healthy life. The assistant, therefore, is encouraged to invite the core members to do things with them. If an assistant accompanies a core member to choose and buy clothing for example, it may also be appropriate for a core member to accompany an assistant to help them choose and buy clothing. Core members and assistants may invite each other to see the movies they each want to see. If an assistant wants to join a church youth group, they may invite a young core member to join them. Many more examples could be listed where there is the possibility of a healthy synergy between the needs and desires of assistants and core members.

Many of these invitations might not be appropriate in a "staffed" agency where they would be viewed as a conflict of interest at best, and coercion and manipulation at worst. But in a L'Arche community where assistants have put their lives in common with core members, some wonderful opportunities for establishing societal connections and relationships come from the assistants needs and desires to live a healthy and balanced life themselves. It is important, however, that the right of a core member to say "no" is always respected in this process. Also, given the fact that they receive remuneration for supporting core members, assistants do not have the same degree of freedom to say "no" to the expressed needs and desires of core members.

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