Newsletter Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! When is it appropriate to talk about Christmas? That was the talking point on a local radio station recently. In my L’Arche community, one house has set the date as December 1st because Christmas seems to come earlier and earlier each year. In stores, one sees Christmas decorations and hears Christmas music playing in early November. Christmas is coming, yet are we really prepared to celebrate the true meaning of the season? In the church, the season of Advent is a time to prepare for Christmas, to remember the things that really matter such as: welcoming the stranger, celebrating the value of each person and our life together, taking care of each other, standing on humble ground, and living in joy. Do these values sound familiar? In L’Arche, Christmas calls us to live our core values in a particular way at this time of year. As you read this newsletter, alone or with others, take time to identify how the core values are being lived in L’Arche in Canada and beyond our borders. Whether you are Christian or believe in another tradition or pathway, we invite you to discover what Christmas is really about. Let us open our hearts as we live these days. The ability to give and receive love is a gift we have each been given that only gets better when we give it away. Hollee Card
About the artists Creative Connections of L’Arche Saint John is a space where persons with and without intellectual disabilities, local artists, and volunteers come together, providing an opportunity for individuals to share their gifts and talents through creative expression while enabling greater community inclusion. Pictured are Tricia Hayes, Gray Gillies Mott, Jacques Chiasson, Patrick McGrath, Krista Simmons, and Greer Stackhouse.
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News from the Regions Atlantic Region By Jenn Power Members of L’Arche Atlantic gathered in November to plan and to dream – how can we focus our work to have the greatest impact in our corner of the world? We were enthusiastic and united in our priorities – strengthening our partnerships with government and advocacy groups, reaching out to families of people with intellectual disabilities, investing in new leaders in our communities, and ensuring our community members with disabilities are fully engaged in the decisions and activities of daily life.
Jenn Power and Tricia Scott
This summer, L’Arche Avalon rolled out the welcome mat for a group of vacationers from L’Arche Atlantic
Also at this Assembly, we celebrated a new step in our growth – welcoming our first Vice Regional Leader, Tricia Scott, to help support this ambitious growth and development. Our newest community, L’Arche Avalon, is taking steps to growth as they work with the provincial government in Newfoundland and Labrador to ensure support for their founding. This summer, L’Arche Avalon rolled out the welcome mat for a group of vacationers from L’Arche Atlantic – a highlight of the summer! Also this summer, 13 people from L’Arche Atlantic were thrilled to travel to Belfast to attend the L’Arche International Federation Assembly. What a week of grace, celebration, relationship, and solidarity! The inspiration of that experience – and the inspiration of everyday life in our communities – keeps us energized to continue to work for the mission of L’Arche in Atlantic Canada and beyond.
Official launch of L’Arche Avalon
L’Arche Atlantic delegates to Belfast Assembly
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Ontario By Toinette Parisio On September 29, a walk took place in Arnprior. It was not any walk – It was a Glow Walk, where each person glowed as they walked through the streets of Arnprior, Buses brought people from out of town: the L’Arche communities in Ottawa and Gatineau joined L’Arche Arnprior in this new, exciting and energizing event. It was a real walk of solidarity, solidarity at many levels: • A walk of partners: L’Arche Arnprior, the Arnprior Regional Health Foundation, L’Arche Ottawa and L’Arche Agapè in Gatineau • A walk with people with and without intellectual disabilities • A walk with friends, volunteers, families • A walk between many generations • A walk with Anglophones, Francophones, and bilingual people
Top: Nancy Candace, Marissa, Abbey, Buena, Marian Left: Pat Gurevitch and Renée McKeogh, walking buddies at the Glow With Us event in Arnprior
Everyone glowed in the city of Arnprior, had fun, and raised funds for the partners as well as awareness of L’Arche in the Ottawa Valley. The event was not even finished before the hospital foundation was asking for the date for next year’s walk. Collaboration made this walk possible. Together we are better.
Québec By Patrice Paradis and Sylvie Morin The Quebec region is full of life. L’Arche Mauricie recently appointed a new community leader. We give thanks for Luc Héon who said yes to accompany the community through their new four-year mandate.
Troqueur, a swap store where students and teachers can leave objects they’re not using any more, and other students can take these objects for free. We held the official opening of the new space for L’Arche Agapè’s workshop, Jouets d’Arcen-ciel. Several other projects are currently in progress.
L’Arche Mauricie and L’Arche Montréal celebrated their 40th anniversary. Two wonderful celebrations provided the opportunity to give thanks for everything these communities have lived through the years. L’Arche Beloeil’s garden project was a true success. This autumn, participants harvested the fruits of their labour. L’Arche Joliette celebrated its 15-year anniversary and the CHUM project at Cégep de Joliette opened its Boutique le
L’Arche Montréal celebrating it’s 40th anniversary.
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Québec > continued
L’Arche Agapè opened a new space for les Jouets d’Arc-en-Ciel
L’Arche Mauricie new community leader: Luc Héon
L’Arche Joliette launched a new project in partnership with a local college
Western Region By Marni Davis The Western Region continues to grow. The I Belong Centre in the Comox Valley, containing the community’s administration, adult activities centre and apartments for people with disabilities, has completed construction and is open. L’Arche Greater Vancouver has been working with an architect and the province to plan a major redevelop-
ment project of their existing facilities and is preparing for the launch of their major capital campaign. The coffee house in Calgary is expanding; it continues to welcome people with disabilities from agencies in the Calgary area and has become a gathering place for the disability community.
“The Good Path”, artwork by Dianne Koci and Melina Boote.
Stacey, one of the L’Arche Tova café volunteers in Winnipeg, won the Mayor’s Service Award and the café itself won the Premier’s Service Award. Lethbridge and Edmonton continue with fundraising activities. Saskatoon and Vancouver have reached out to the public through art shows.
Stacey won the Mayor’s Service Award for her volunteer work at L’Arche Tova Café
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National Grant Program L’Arche Saskatoon Ark Hives By Wyndham Thiessen We’re always up for a new challenge in L’Arche Saskatoon, and this year, thanks to a grant from the L’Arche Canada Foundation, we began the adventure of beekeeping. Our workshop members did a fair bit of work looking after the bees in our two hives. Lighting the
smoker and smoking the bees before opening the hives was a favorite task! One of our hives had trouble holding on to its queen, but we were eventually able to get one settled in nicely. Our honey harvest at the end of summer was a modest affair, about 20 pounds of honey, but it was a lot of fun. I was the only person who got stung! We’re looking forward to starting again next year after the snow melts—look for honey from the L’Arche Saskatoon Ark Hives.
Nancy, Jessica and Wyndham looking at the new bees just after they were delivered. Photo by Andrea Schmidt.
Growth Initiative By Lori Vaanholt Daily life in community remains the core of the L’Arche identity and mission, fertile ground for transformative relationships that are a sign of hope for the world. Yet we live in a complex world, so the systems needed to support this simple life are complex. The Growth Initiative is building
Above: Catherine Schmidt and Garrett Sinclair host a presentation on the Willow Tree. Right: L’Arche Daybreak Silver Anniversary Tea.
on the experience of our 30 communities so we can “scale our impact” –increase our capacity to develop innovative, sustainable ways to respond to the dreams and needs of the people who call us today. g
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Growth Initiative > continued
L’Arche in Canada is working together to scale our impact by navigating strategic pathways through complex systems. We are collaborating in order to effectively engage our neighbours, other agencies, governments, funders, and partners in inclusion to share knowledge and invest in our growth. Our strength is relationships – that is the core of the L’Arche
model – and they are critically important in this era of systems change. The strategic pathways we are taking together include: • Common messaging to articulate our existing and developing models of shared living – including clear descriptions and impact statements.
Opening of 3 new community centres across the country On one extraordinary week in September, three L’Arche communities –in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, London, Ontario and the Comox Valley, British Colombia – opened new community centres. These new projects vary in programming, but they share many aspects of the L’Arche growth mandate. Each was driven by a vision of: • Creating beautiful spaces where people with and without disabilities share life and friendship in varied, meaningful ways; • Supporting persons with disabilities –living in L’Arche, on their own, or with their families – to develop and contribute their gifts and abilities; • Developing innovative programing that meets the needs and desires of individuals while forming groups of common interest; and • Reaching out to the wider community as partners not only in their capital campaigns, but also in new initiatives in the centres and the community. The 3 communities and their networks of friends and supporters drove these building projects with varying support from the L’Arche Canada Growth Initiative. L’Arche Canada has a valued role in encouraging shared learning and grant opportunities so that L’Arche in Canada continues to change and grow.
• Government funding – collaborating when accessing funding programs – sharing opportunities, applications, and performance indicators • Sharing stories of impact of innovative ways of life sharing – for individuals, their families, friends and communities, and society in order to inspire and inform others.
L’Arche London’s new Gathering Place welcoming friends old and new.
A birthday celebration in L’Arche Homefires new centre.
“For the Birds” at the L’Arche Comox Valley I Belong centre.
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Leadership Development and Recruitment By Amy Demoulin The Leadership Development team continues to develop and deliver our ambitious web-based leadership training program: • Continuing to add new modules to the SL Portal, a one-stop, user-friendly site for all information and resources. • Rolling-out an expanded series of webinars in fall 2017 and spring 2018 for people in a wide variety of roles including house and program assistants as well as leaders. • Continuing to provide in-person leadership training. • Delivering a Homes and Program Coordinators training in November 2017. We rebranded our Core Value Newsletter to continue to help communities deepen in the Identity and Mission through inspiration, activities, pictures, and stories. A team of seven people –and growing –is contributing. We are deepening our learning culture as we evaluate our impact through: • Evaluation/analysis of performance measures and data collection. • The 2nd Assistant Leadership Indicator (barometer.) • External evaluation of our programs by Université du Québec en Outaouais. There is good news from recruitment as the percentage of Canadian applicants continues to increase: 16% in 2014, 25% in 2015, 30% in 2016, and 34% in 2017. Elizabeth Nash, our interim Recruitment Coordinator, is working with assistants coordinators across the country:
Leadership training in Cape Breton, October 2017
• Supporting community and regional recruitment committees –where they exist. • Supporting the Western Region in starting a pilot project with the Coop programs at the University of British Columbia and the University of Winnipeg. • Developing 14 Recruitment Presentation modules and 2 presentation webinars with support from John Guido from the Outreach and Communications team. • Maintaining and updating systems on www.larche-work.ca. Traffic to the recruitment website has increased by 91.98% this year.
Webinars: Elizabeth Nash presenting the Presentations webinar
Rebranded Core Value Newsletter
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Outreach and Communications By John Guido Sharing, Sharing, Sharing –the three keys to effective communication are the priorities of the Outreach and Communications team. We are working at: • Sharing powerful stories from L’Arche communities and our partners through a revitalized larche.ca and intranet site. It’s been long and slow work, but Bernard Lebleu our web designer is making progress. Increased traffic to the recruitment page and the successful delivery of the leadership development program bode well for our capacity to share within the L’Arche network and beyond.
https://vimeo.com/233627624
• Sharing core L’Arche values about listening and respect through a social media campaign with many partners who share and can help spread these messages. These animations by Manu Allard and his team have reached a wide audience. • Sharing key messages tailored to specific audiences and consistent branding and visual design (including use of logos) guidelines in collaboration with the communities/ regions, the Foundation, and L’Arche International. • Sharing important reports and inspiring talks through videos from the National Council and Community Leaders and Board Presidents meetings with all members. • Sharing the Founding Story of L’Arche through modules designed to inspire and call all members to live the Mission of L’Arche more deeply.
John Guido and Marie-Laure Turmel in the video control booth, during last September national meetings.
• Sharing wisdom on co-creating stories through webinars and videos created by Jonathan Boulet-Groulx and his co-creators in L’Arche Arnprior (EN) and L’Arche Joliette (FR).
How to Take Beautiful Photographs https://vimeo.com/243222822 An Easy Guide to Storytelling https://vimeo.com/243225799
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Solidarity By John Guido
tionships of true solidarity. Jeannette outlined these steps:
Solidarity was a major focus of the L’Arche Canada meetings in September. Zoël Breau the International Delegate to the “isolated countries” reported on these communities who live in often difficult circumstances due to their financial realities, isolation, and cultural and language differences. He shared stories of L’Arche Uganda to show the reality of life in one part of the world.
• Build a strong foundation. Her community lay the groundwork by reflecting on “How de we love each other and how do we love our neighbour?” • Be patient, trusting the right time will come for a solidarity experience. • Be practical –do the work needed when an opportunity arises. • Always, be open to the movement of the Spirit and act when you feel the call.
Azucena West is an International Envoy accompanying communities in Latin America (the way regional Leaders accompany communities in Canada). She shared about the communities in Honduras who struggle with significant financial poverty and assistant shortages yet are rich in faith, relationships, and community spirit. It was shocking to hear of issues of flooding in Choluteca and the need to move the community in Tegucigalpa due to the violence in their neighbourhood. Donna Diskos, L’Arche Canada Board Treasurer, shared the International request that Canada shoulder a greater percentage of the costs of supporting the communities of L’Arche in the developing world. It is a significant challenge for us; we need to creatively find solutions together. Jeannette Fraser, Community Leader of L’Arche Arnprior, gave a Spirit-filled testimony to the power of “solidarity in our own backyard.” (This was how a core member from her community described their experience.) Her community was involved in two separate solidarity activities in the past year. First, they collaborated with L’Arche International and L’Arche London to fund a 3-month sabbatical for Amudha, a long-term assistant from Asha Niketan Chennai, who they welcomed along with London. Secondly, L’Arche Arnprior was formally “twinned” with L’Arche Lyon in France in the L’Arche International program of mutual discovery and relationship. There was a process of community discernment, application to International and a hilarious, but fruitful interview process with the whole L’Arche Lyon community that Jeannette passed! Since then the two communities have been building a relationship through visits and sharing of cards and videos. With the enormity of the needs of our communities in the south, it is essential that we do the work of building rela-
Above: Arnprior visiting Lyon (France) before going to Belfast Assembly, Left: Jeannette Fraser, Community Leader of L’Arche Arnprior. Bottom: Zoel Breau, International Delegate and Azucena West, International Envoy.
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L'Arche Canada Foundation By Gary Sim This fall has been a wonderful time in the history of the Foundation – a time of partnership building. I truly appreciate the spirit of partnership shown by each of the regions and communities across the country. This spirit was alive as we worked together to create the L’Arche Canada’s cookbook, profiling recipes and profiles from every community. The recipe book is bright and cheerful and currently available to every community electronically. We hope very soon to be able to offer the printed version to communities to use as donor appreciation gifts.
Gary Sim with Jamie Golombek of CIBC and the L’Arche Canada Foundation Board, and Laura Dottori-Attanasio, Senior Executive Vice President at CIBC
We have also been working on the major fundraising campaign to help each and every region and community achieve its growth dreams. We are working initially with the Atlantic Region communities to launch the campaign in 2018, but every region and community will be included when they are ready. As we prepare for the campaign it is very important that we properly steward our past donors – and we did that in a recent donor appreciation event at the head office of CIBC. Thank you to everyone for your amazing support and collaboration.
L’Arche Toronto Spirit Movers at the Donor Appreciation evening.
Newsletter L'Arche Canada Board By John Rietschlin This may surprise you, but one of my great joys as Board Chair is attending L’Arche Canada’s annual meeting in September. At the annual meeting, our community board chairs and community leaders meet with the national and regional leadership teams, the national board and the Foundation to discuss important national challenges and initiatives. This assembly provides an opportunity for leaders to build relationships and share information to achieve our collective mission. We were privileged to have Stephan Posner, the new L’Arche International Leader, share the vision of “One L’Arche” and get to know us. Everyone appreciated the opportunity to meet him. To improve communication and build unity within L’Arche in Canada, we filmed key presentations and made them available to all members. Links to the videos were provided in the L’Arche Canada Bulletin and on the Meeting Ground. I would like to highlight three topics discussed during the meeting: • The communities face financial challenges to meet current needs and to grow. In addition, L’Arche International is asking us to carry much more of the costs of supporting communities in the developing world. We seek to increase the capacity of the Foundation to raise funds directly and to strengthen community fundraising • The communities approved national guidelines for promoting respect and preventing abuse. Each community must now create policies to address the extended guidelines within the framework of provincial legislation. • L’Arche Canada is committed to serving the communities well. To assess our impact, we have implemented an annual Feedback Survey. Preliminary results were presented. Now we are preparing our plan to address the concerns raised by this feedback.
Winter 2018
Presenting a Board Member
Brian Dawkins For the past 22 years I have served as the head of the Finance & Operations Department of The Peoples Church in Toronto. Prior to that I held several senior roles in Texaco Canada Inc. and Imperial Oil. I am currently transitioning to semi-retirement. I am married to Liz, an elementary school French teacher, father of 2 wonderful adults and grandfather to 3 beautiful grandchildren. In my spare time I love to play golf. I was introduced to L’Arche by a dear friend, Dean Levitt, following the death of my first wife. It did not take long for me to appreciate the richness of our people and I have served now for more than 25 years. I began as a board member at Daybreak, moved to L’Arche Toronto when the decision was made to create 2 communities from the original Daybreak. I have served as treasurer and board chair. In 2016, Dean invited me to consider serving on the L’Arche Canada Foundation Board and I welcomed the opportunity. I now serve as the Chairman of the Foundation and as a member of the L’Arche Canada Board of Directors. The longer I serve in L’Arche the more grateful I am for this great opportunity. The people of L’Arche are a constant source of inspiration to me and I feel I have received far more than I have given.
John Rietschlin, Hollee Card and Gabrielle Beaulieu videotaped at the L’Arche Canada meetings, September 2017
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News from the Federation By Hollee Card I recently attended a meeting in Barcelona of the International Leadership Team with the national leaders of the “confirmed countries” (France, Canada, U.K. and U.S.A), and the international delegates for “countries” (three or more communities with a small national structure) and for “isolated communities” (one or two communities no national structure). As we have a new mandate, and this was Stephan Posner and Stacy Cates-Carney’s first meeting as International Leaders, a great deal of time was spent updating the draft strategic plan as well as reviewing the budget. The strategic plan will define how the mandate will be lived out over the next five years. It will be reviewed regularly to ensure that the activities remain relevant. If a budget reflects the real priorities of an organization, solidarity with the countries and isolated communities is the primary focus of L’Arche International. More than half the budget (57%) goes to support these communities in such areas as human resources, supervision and formation. During the meeting, we were thinking of L’Arche Zimbabwe, one of the isolated communities. Please pray for them and the people of Zimbabwe in this time of political transition. These are fragile days. One gift of being in Barcelona is that we could spend the evening with the two communities in Catalonia, El Rusc and El Moya. They are vibrant communities well integrated in their towns. International Leaders meeting in Barcelona
L’Arche El Rusc
L’Arche Zimbabwe
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One L'Arche Excerpt from Stephan Posner address at the National Leaders meeting, September 2017
“I would like to come back to this question of One L’Arche. Why do we need to say One? After all, L’Arche is written in the singular; it’s not a plural word. It is because we need to be recalled to unity. And you know, instinctively we know that unity is very precious. It’s precious because it’s rare, and it’s rare because it’s difficult. Unity is our differences, woven together… …What we’re going to become I don’t know. On the other hand, what I do know is that the experience we claim is an experience of meeting, an experience that transforms us, in that it changes our perceptions, shakes up the way we think, changes the lens through which we normally understand the world and what makes sense or what is nonsense, what has value or what doesn’t, what is useful or what is not.
If we were to speak in biblical or evangelical terms, we would speak of the relationship between the sage and the fool, between the pagan and the Jew, between the master and the slave – of how all of those boundaries are shattered, transformed. This experience of relationship, of transformation and of sign, carries meaning for the world. What I do know is that this experience touches on truths that are greater than we are, that won’t be affected by the vagaries of our future. Of that we can be certain. We serve a truth that is much greater than us, we can be assured of that.” Watch video here