About Us
L’Arche’s work is simple. We invite people with and without diverse abilities to build community together.
We are a community of people with and without diverse abilities sharing life together.
We celebrate the unique value of each person, revealing each others’ gifts and recognizing our need for one another.
This past year reminds us of how joy often shows up in the smallest moments: a shared meal, a laugh, a walk together. At L’Arche Comox Valley we continue to grow, building a community where everyone belongs and their gifts are welcomed.
Our Values
L’Arche values compassion, inclusion, respect for diversity and the dignity of the individual. We have no formal affiliation with any church or religious community. Our community and faith life inspire us to be open to people of differing intellectual capacity, social origin, religion, race, orientation and culture.
See our core values here.
We are a registered and accredited
not-for-profit charity
L’Arche CV is organized and operated by a volunteer Board of Directors. We are one of 29 L’Arche communities across Canada, operating nearly 200 homes and work places, and part of a network of 145 communities in 40 countries around the world.
We’re accredited by CARF (Commission on Accreditation and Rehabilitation Facilities).
- Accreditation recognizes that L’Arche Comox Valley is guided by internationally recognized service standards and best practices. CARF accreditation consists of ongoing consultation and in-depth on-site reviews to help our organization achieve the highest quality of care for the community we support.
- It demonstrates that we value the input of those we support and that we hold ourselves accountable to the community. It shows that we are committed to putting the needs of our community at the center of everything we do.
What makes a community?
L’Arche exists in many different countries and everywhere the same spirit of community is found and the same discovery made that beauty exists in every person.
Community forms when we discover that we are interdependent and that every person has gifts to contribute. We believe this has an important and transformative effect, helping each one of us to become more fully human and thus helping to humanize our entire society.
We believe this provides people with diverse abilities the status of citizens who contribute to make our society a better place to live.
A community model of living
L’Arche is based on a community model of living, rather than a medical or social service model of care. As a faith-based organization L’Arche recognizes the spiritual and religious needs and aspirations of its members, and respects those who have no spiritual or religious affiliation.