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Becoming an Assistant in L’Arche

Explore a community grounded in faith, that seeks to live a life of openness and the challenge of the common experiences of life. Learn the wisdom of the weak, and the joys and struggles of those who may not hear or speak and have developmental disabilities.

For more information on becoming a LArche Assisant contact us!

The responsibilities of an Assistant include care-giving, helping to create home, building community and being an accompanier to those with disabilities living in the home. Room and board is provided along with a small stipend. US citizens are also eligible for an AmeriCorps award for service with L’Arche. L’Arche is a non-profit organization. Many university graduates, including from Seattle U, Notre Dame, SFU and the UW have come and lived in L’Arche over the years.

We should let you know right away that L'Arche is not an ordinary job but also a choice to participate in a non-denominational spiritual community with a certain lifestyle. Consequently we encourage prospective candidates to come to know us a little – which often involves a visit for a few days -- before making a year’s commitment. Simply by living in a L’Arche community, assistants are often surprised by the new horizons that open up for them through the depth of their experiences and by the way that the people at the heart of a L'Arche community touch their lives. Often their experiences inspire them to find what is truly life-giving by discovering in themselves new gifts through which they develop a clearer sense of direction for the future. As a L'Arche Seattle assistant, you will be invited to make your home in one of our three L'Arche households.

There, with two or three other assistants, you will accompany four or five core members (people with a developmental disability) in their activities of daily life, creating a home and developing a relationship with the other members of the home. Besides being able to communicate in English, we ask applicants to have a willingness to learn from and be open to the possibility of being changed through their experiences in community, to embrace the formation and training that L'Arche provides, to work in a team, to support the members of a house and to participate in the activities of the community. As a candidate for probationary membership, you are not required to have any previous experience with people with a developmental disability or community living. Indeed for many, L’Arche is their first experience of both.

Assistants usually make an initial commitment of one year, with the first three months being a period of orientation and a time for the assistant and the community to discover whether the choice to come to L'Arche is a good fit at a particular time.

Assistants are paid a modest monthly salary and receive medical and dental benefits. Each has a certain amount of personal time each day, two days away each week and a month’s vacation after the year.

During the first months, an assistant learns about the values, philosophy and way of life at L'Arche as well as develop relationships with the people in their home. Gradually they will take on more responsibilities. Many assistants decide that, because they are growing and finding life in L'Arche, they will make a further commitment of a second, third or more years. Many assistants have found that their time in L'Arche has one of the most formative of their life.

Qualifications:

Maturity, High-School graduate (College Degree preferred, but not required). Fluent in English (oral and written).

Desire to live in an intentional faith community, openness to personal growth and development. Openness to being on a spiritual pathway.