Independent Living for Adults with Disabilities
L’Arche St. Louis is a nonprofit organization that brings adults with and without intellectual disabilities into community together.
IMAGINE COMMUNITY DIFFERENTLY
Our homes are the heart of our work, but our impact reaches far beyond their doors. L’Arche St. Louis provides the local community with education and resources through our outreach and volunteering programs, and creates diverse support networks for caregivers and social groups for adults with developmental disabilities via regular public events.
Our independent living programs welcome people from all walks of life—spiritual or not—but as an historically religious nonprofit organization, trust in God is at the heart of our journey together. We celebrate the unique value of every person and recognize our need for one another.
We are on a mission to . . .
Make known the gifts of adults with developmental disabilities, revealed through mutually transforming relationships.
Foster an environment that responds to the changing needs of our members, while remaining faithful to the core values of our founding story.
Engage in diverse cultures, working together toward a more human society where everyone belongs.
Because we believe that . . .
Persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, through their own vulnerability, can invite others into relationship and show us our shared humanity.
We must constantly challenge ourselves to question what it means to be an inclusive community in today’s increasingly diverse society.
Each person is unique and of sacred value, and we experience God’s love through mutual friendships in which the gifts and weaknesses of each person are recognized and accepted.
Learn what makes L’Arche St. Louis special from our Core Members, family, friends, and founders as we celebrate more than 10 years of building community!
Everyone belongs.
Rooted Locally, Recognized Internationally
L’Arche St. Louis was founded in 2011 as one of 17 communities in L’Arche USA and part of more than 150 independent living programs for adults with disabilities under the International Federation of L’Arche—an organization spanning 38 countries across six continents. Since its inception in France in 1964, L’Arche has blossomed from a predominantly Catholic charity into a wave of disability nonprofit organizations around the world, each with diverse spiritual identities. Today, your local chapter consists of ten adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities (Core Members) and several Assistants who share life with them in our three living communities. We also serve six adults through our Family Support Program.
