L’Arche NC House Blessing & Ribbon Cutting
We had over 90 people join us a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the L’Arche House for the House Blessing & Ribbon Cutting Ceremony! We were especially grateful to have former board members, and those who helped shape this vision over a decade ago, with us at our wonderful L’Arche home south Durham. Their dedication has truly made a difference! Check out this reel on Facebook or Instagram.
We were thrilled to welcome L’Arche USA staff, including Laura Giddings, the Executive Director of L’Arche USA and Thomas Marquis, Manager of Community Support & Learning. Other L’Arche communities were present for this exciting occassion, too, including Katie Miyakado from L’Arche Tacoma and Dustin Barrington from L’Arche Northern Colorado. The connections of L’Arche across the country were truly felt!
Thank you to all our L’Arche friends, community partners, and supporters for, not only joining us, but making this day possible. Your presence, financial support, prayers, and many volunteers hours have made this house a home!
*Special thanks to Mark Evans for capturing these photos during the ceremony.
House Blessing
Leader 1: We gather here today to bless this home, a place where love, inclusion, and community will flourish.
All: May this home be filled with joy and peace.
Leader 2: This plate represents the dining room, where meals will be shared. May the conversations around this table be filled with laughter, understanding, and friendship.
All: May this home be filled with joy and peace.
Leader 3: This mixer represents the kitchen, a space where meals will be lovingly prepared together. May the act of cooking inspire togetherness, creativity, and the joy of serving one another.
All: May this home be filled with joy and peace.
Leader 4: This pillow represents the bedrooms of our Core Members and Assistants. Each room is a sanctuary for rest and reflection. May we honor the unique gifts read more
Opportunities are Blooming!
Opportunities are blooming at L'Arche NC, and we are ready for spring! February was filled with so many new opportunities for friendship! At the beginning of the month, L'Arche NC friends gathered for a "Crafternoon" where we painted jars with thumbprint hearts and made friendship booklets. We had many new friends join us for this gathering. After the event, one parent shared with us that for an hour after the Zoom call their daughter continued to say on her communication device "painting with friends, painting with friends!" We are so grateful to be able to provide these opportunities to connect. In February we also joined with L'Arche Atlanta for our monthly prayer service, "Y'All Belong Here". We have been gathering on the third Wednesday of each month at 2:00pm EST for this event since May 2021! It has been a real blessing to create this recurring sacred space of friends where we often see familiar faces and greet new friends. Last month, as we watched our community members encourage each other and pray for one another, the sense of belonging was visible! We hope you'll join us in read more
Cultivating Inclusive Community
Last year, our Board of Directors created a special task force to review our Mission Statement. Our goal was to evaluate our purpose and intentions. The outcome of this task force was an updated mission statement: L’Arche North Carolina cultivates inclusive communities where people across the spectrum of intellectual and developmental disability identities live and flourish together. For us, this is more than a just a statement to add on our website or business cards. It is a driving force behind everything we do. We have some really big goals for this year, including establishing the first L'Arche community in North Carolina. We can't wait to have a physical space in the Triangle where we can gather together. At the same time, we recognize that each month, we are are creating an inclusive community of friends and neighbors across the Triangle (and beyond) through accessible events and programs. Our hearts are full knowing that we don't have to wait for a physical space in order for L'Arche North Carolina to have a community! As we look to another month of "Zooming" from each of our own homes or read more
Sailing through 2021
Did you miss the end-of-year update we sent in the mail this month? That must mean we don't have your updated address. Please email info@larchenc.org to be added to our mailing list. It's been a great year and we could not have done it without YOU. Thanks for your prayers, presence, and support.
Our Hope for 2022: Creating Belonging
When our friend John calls the L'Arche North Carolina office, he doesn't just say "hello." He calls with purpose and gets right to business. John asks, "so, what programs do you have coming up? Anything I can join?" We share the list of upcoming events, and he confidently responds, "I have more ideas! How about a trivia event or a talent show?" John is an amazing individual with autism. His ideas are big, and his enthusiasm is tangible. We take his suggestions seriously and welcome his calls as part of our workday; we want to craft events that EVERYONE in our community, including John, will enjoy and find meaningful. These gatherings serve a much greater purpose than simply offering fun activities for people to do. We plan and host such events to create opportunities for friendship, where every person is included and celebrated for their unique gifts. L’Arche North Carolina is on a mission to create communities of belonging for people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). We seek to foster the flourishing of individuals within a community setting. While we currently gather together for events read more
Thank YOU for supporting L’Arche NC this Giving Season!
We are so grateful for your outpouring of support this Giving Tuesday: you helped raise over $20,000 for L'Arche North Carolina! Your generous gifts move us closer to establishing the first L'Arche home in North Carolina. Your investment in our community for adults with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities supports programs and events that help create inclusion and nurture belonging! Thank you! There are many ways you can continue to support L'Arche NC, beyond financial gifts. This holiday season, give the gift of your presence at our events, or reach out to info@larchenc.org if you have a talent or skill that you would like contribute to our emerging community! Want to donate but missed Giving Tuesday? It's not too late! click HERE. Give a gift that keeps on giving! This holiday season give the gift of hope. Donate to L'Arche NC in honor of a friend or family member. They will receive a handwritten card from L'Arche NC letting them know a special gift was given in their name to help create a more inclusive world. Email Laurasl@Larchenc.org for more information.
Our First Hybrid Event
On Friday, October 29, we gathered for our first hybrid event. After many months of waiting to be together in person, we finally did it! It was wonderful to see people, both new friends and old buddies, in real life. This gathering was really an idea that blossomed from St. Francis of Assisi Church in Raleigh. They were having a staff service day and asked if it was possible to partner with L'Arche NC. With this invitation, we decided to host a gathering not only for some of their staff and L'Arche friends but for the whole community. The morning was really two "events" in one. We started with painting pumpkins. For this activity, we joined a Zoom with L'Arche Jacksonville in Florida. L'Arche Jax gave us a quick tour of their beautiful Rainbow Room Workshop. Seeing this large building with so many different rooms, activities, and crafts was inspiring! What if L'Arche NC one day had such a space to welcome so many friends, volunteers, and community members? We had fun getting to meet some of the Core Members from this community, too. After the pumpkins, we read more
Reflecting on the Impact of L’Arche by Rev. Christi Dye
At my first prayer service at L'Arche, a long-term assistant welcomed me and said, "Be careful. L'Arche gets in your blood, and you're never the same." 26 years later, I still affirm that she was right. L'Arche is so much a part of me that it's like it's "in my blood." I lived in community for 9 years (1996-2005) and am now a pastor in Raleigh; L’Arche is with me, IN me all the time. L'Arche has given me a great capacity to celebrate others. I may have been generally affirming before L'Arche, but now I really delight in each person. Recently, a new colleague commented on how much she delighted in hearing me greet people in the hallway as they come back into the church office. That's the welcome of L'Arche. L'Arche taught me to not shy away from hard things; which is important as a pastor because my people go through really hard things. It's L'Arche that taught me...in-depth...that God is present in our pain and vulnerabilities. L'Arche has been called a “moveable feast,” an embodiment of abundance that can be experienced in many times and read more
Macie’s First Month Reflection
My first month with L’Arche NC has flown by at lightning speed! I am so grateful for my time here thus far, and have been thoroughly enjoying the chance to get to know what work with L’Arche looks like. While getting acclimated I’ve been absorbing tons of new information; an endeavor which has come with its fair share of exciting, disheartening, overwhelming, and hope-filled realizations. I’ll be sharing here some of the most impactful things I’ve learned so far. First, I am learning the reality of accessible spaces in our world. During my first week, I started to look for places to feature in our social media series, “Accessible Triangle,” a series where we post exciting, accessible locations to visit in our area. As soon as I began sifting through my own ideas for features, this reality came creeping in: they are all inaccessible. I then tried a google search: still, most are inaccessible. I began paying attention to the places I was driving past and walking by on my off-hours. Again, so many of the places which sparked an initial “that could be neat!” are inaccessible. I read more
