04.09.2024
By Milly Coogan

In L’Arche, we want to make sure everyone’s voice is heard – especially people with learning disabilities we support, and people who need extra help to communicate. That’s why L’Arche in the UK has a National Speaking Council.

The NSC includes a Representative with a learning disability from each Community, accompanied and supported by an Ally. It meets to be the voice of members with a disability within L’Arche, and offer counsel to the National Leader and the National Board. 

The National Speaking Council is important because it's run by a representative from each Community, so everybody is listened to. Sometimes our Communities are so busy, they can’t give us their full attention but here we are the focus of people’s attention. Rebecca Fonseca, NSC Vice-Chair 

In June 2024, they invited me and Chloe, as co-leaders of L’Arche’s Voice and Power work, to facilitate their meeting in Crewe. We were tasked with refreshing the NSC and help give it new power and purpose. Here’s what we got up to during our three days together.

The topic for Day One was Communication, starting with a game of getting-to-know-you bingo in the garden, led by Chloe. What I love about the NSC is how quickly relationships and trust form – so the game was a blast!

After that we got down to our work.

Chloe led a discussion on how we can communicate using our bodies and tone of voice as well as specialised communication tools. In smaller groups, we talked about examples of “good” and “bad” communication. And we made and shared “communication passports” to show others what we need, in order to hear and be heard. We also worked together to co-produce a guide for new Reps and Allies joining the NSC in the future.

On Day Two, we started important discussions about campaigning, the environment, easy read, and how experts by experience can deliver training. In the evening, when our work was over, we sang Happy Birthday to Emma and did a round of karaoke!

Finally, on Day Three, Chloe presented the End of Year Report of the Voice and Power Project. We all agreed on some of the things we want to stand up for in L’Arche: the environment, learning disability rights, and challenging stereotypes. And we discussed the big topic of money: Who gets to handle it? Why is it important that people with learning disabilities make payments themselves? How do we deal with the move towards a cashless society?

Marc from De Ark Haarlem (a L’Arche Community in the Netherlands) joined this NSC meeting too. At the end, he was inspired to start a Speaking Council back in his own Community. As for Representatives, their next task is to take back our work to all our UK Communities – so that everyone in L’Arche is heard and has their say.