What we value

Treating people with dignity and respect: We value every person and celebrate who they are. We do not just tolerate diversity, but actively embrace it in our communities. A key way we demonstrate dignity and respect is by being fully present to each other when we are together and listening deeply to one another.

Friendliness and welcome: We are deeply committed to building friendships together, which calls us to live life with a joyful and grateful spirit. A key way we demonstrate friendliness and welcome is by offering meaningful invitation and welcome to newcomers, and also to each other, on a daily basis.

Empathy: We are committed to understanding and sharing the feelings of one another. We prioritise the qualities of compassion, caring, and kindness to nurture empathy. A key way we demonstrate empathy is through the quality of the shared life we build together.

Integrity: We strive to have integrity in everything we do and in every relationship we build. We seek to be authentic and honest, trustworthy and open because to build meaningful relationships we need to reveal who we are. A key way we demonstrate integrity is through our willingness to be both vulnerable and courageous.

Commitment to community building: We choose to share life together rather than merely work together. Sharing life means we create mutual relationships with one another and also share responsibility for the life and wellbeing of the community as a whole. We practice forgiveness and celebration, and create places of belonging that are open to all who share our mission and values. A key way we demonstrate our commitment to community building is through our nurturing of our shared spirituality expressed through the community traditions and practices that shape our daily life together.

Openness to reflection, learning and growth: We are personally committed to growth and development in the dimensions of L’Arche identity and mission, and also support the growth of the whole community by nurturing the gifts of each person, creating a learning culture together and being attentive to our personal and communal spiritual life. A key way we demonstrate our commitment to learning is the frequency and quality of our personal and group reflective practices and processes.

Commitment to the vision and mission of L’Arche: We actively engage in all dimensions of the L’Arche mission and practice, both personally and communally. We demonstrate our commitment as people with and without learning disabilities sharing in life together through engaging in our local neighbourhoods, and the wider world, to shape a more human society.

For more information about applying to be an assistant, follow the links below:

Residential assistants

Non-residential assistants

Latest

James' story

'You can’t make things perfect here. Instead you learn to use the imperfect things as gifts.’
House Leader, L'Arche Preston

£22,173 - £23,379 (40 hours a week). Offered as a permanent role.
Walking Together: Register your place
Will I get a map of the route?

Residential vacancies

L'Arche live-in assistants live and work in our Communities with and alongside people with learning disabilities. They provide them care and support. Apply here.
Join us as an assistant

Spend a year as an assistant and we will give you an experience of difference that will change your life.
L'Arche in the UK

There are twelve L’Arche Communities based across the UK, where persons with and without learning disabilities live together. Volunteers and care workers are providing support. They try to promote Jean Vanier philosophy. All faiths are welcomed.
What we do

In a world that values winning, L’Arche Communities are places where people with and without learning disabilities can discover who they are and not just what they can do.
Statement from L'Arche, following the verdict at the inquest into the death of Joe Ulleri

Speaking outside the Coroner’s Court in Manchester, Kevin Coogan, Community Leader of L’Arche Manchester, read out the following statement on behalf of L’Arche.
Jean Vanier: Biography

Jean Vanier founded L'Arche in 1964, after becoming aware of the plight of thousands of people with learning disabilities who were institutionalised in France. He was an inspiring teacher whose life was testament to a radically different way of living and being in the world. He created a Community where people with and without learning disabilities were living together.
Summer in the Forest

Summer in the Forest is a full-length feature film about our founder Jean Vanier and the L’Arche communities in Trosly, France and Bethlehem. It tells how two L’Arche communities, though quite different from those in the UK, share our common values, and shows how people with learning disabilities and assistants / care workers that support them are living together.
L’Arche statement following the recent BBC Panorama documentary and the release of the CQC report into the detainment of people with learning disabilities

The Panorama programme aired by the BBC on Wednesday 22nd May showing the abuse of people with learning disabilities, and the recently published CQC report revealing the detainment of people with learning disabilities and autism in ATUs (Assessment and Treatment Units), once again reveals the appalling mistreatment and abuse experienced by some of society’s most vulnerable people.
Jean Vanier interview: belonging in a time of loneliness.

We interviewed Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche, at his home in the L'Arche Trosly Community in France. Listen to Jean as he reflects on ageing and fragility, loss and loneliness, and the mystery that compels people to L'Arche.
Supported living

While some individuals wish to live in a home with other people, others prefer to be supported to live independently. At L’Arche we help people to choose a way of life that feels right for them, and for their families.