How I helped recruit our next National Leader

Rebecca Fonseca (with support from Milly Coogan)

Our “core members” – people with learning disabilities in L’Arche – want more voice and more power: to be listened to as experts of their own experience and have more say in the things that matter to them. So we asked Rebecca what that looked like, when she was on a panel to recruit our new National Leader.

L'Arche announces new National Leader

In April, I interviewed the top two candidates for National Leader, along with Tony and Kathy from the National Speaking Council, which is the voice of people with learning disabilities in L'Arche. 

It was important for core members to interview the new National Leader because we are what L’Arche is all about. Our questions were better coming from us, because we don’t like people talking for us. But we asked other Representatives from the NSC to give us their questions too, so it wouldn’t be like the three of us were trying to fix it.

“It was a powerful thing for candidates to walk in and see core members as powerful, capable individuals in their own right. Without support there.” Milly Coogan, L’Arche Voice and Power Project Co-Lead

We started the interviews with an activity, where we looked at postcards and used them to tell a story together. We wanted to practice listening to each other, speaking confidently, forming opinions and thinking on the spot.

After that, we asked the candidates questions about community life, listening to core members, finances, and making hard decisions. My question was about how the new National Leader will support Communities to organise their money. That’s important, because if we don’t get funding, we won’t have L’Arche – and we’ll have to find somewhere else to go.

We also asked about the turnover of assistants. That affects me personally a lot. I find it sad and difficult when people leave, because we know we won’t see them again.

Afterwards, we sat down as a group to say what we thought of the candidates. Then we each met with Milly on our own. As a group, it was easier to say what was good about the candidates. When we were on our own, it was easier to say what the candidate could learn and be better at.

I like to do things without support as much as possible. At NSC meetings, we have spaces where our support workers are not in the room at all. And before the interviews, we all asked our support workers to leave too. Milly was there on the side, just to facilitate.

So when the candidates walked in, they saw me, Tony and Kathy on our own in front of them. I think it would have felt nerve-wracking for them, a bit scary. But I wanted to be directly in front of the candidate, because I felt I could do it on my own. It was a great experience.

The interview panel

Rebecca (left), with Tony and Kathy, relaxing together after the final candidate interviews in London (April 2025)