L’Arche Jacksonville is a community with four family-style homes, the Blanchart Community Center and an off-site day program called the Rainbow Workshop.
We believe that by creating an environment where people with intellectual and physical disabilities can share their gifts, we are affecting a positive change in the world. We believe that these shared gifts have the power to transform the lives of those who are open to receiving them. We celebrate the unique value of every person and recognize our need for one another. We resolve to explore and appreciate the diverse cultures and faith practices within L’Arche and to work together toward a more evolved and caring human society.
We accomplish our mission by:
People with intellectual or developmental disabilities that live in a L’Arche home or participate in a day program.
People without intellectual or developmental disabilities who live with and support Core Members.
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.
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.
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.