L’Arche Portland transforms the lives of people with and without intellectual disabilities by working together to create home, share life, and build community.

L’Arche communities are, and have always been, a response to institutions, social isolation, the spiritual journey, and our mutual need for one another. We invite people into relationships across differences, recognize the gifts and needs of each person, and celebrate what it means to be fully human.

We have two homes and regular community gatherings that provide people with and without intellectual disabilities opportunities to discover and build relationships across differences. L’Arche Portland cultivates an extended community of friends, volunteers, and supporters in Oregon, as well as across the country and world.

L’Arche Portland is part of an international movement of over 150 communities in over 30 countries around the world.

People with disabilities experience disproportionately high rates of discrimination, poverty, poor mental and physical health outcomes, and marginalization. Our society does not recognize one of the most important needs of all – the need to belong. Belonging is a need felt by all people, but it is often neglected for people with intellectual disabilities. L’Arche Portland addresses this common need for belonging and the isolation and loneliness that people with intellectual disabilities face through our intentional model of fostering mutual relationships.

Our vision of disability is based on the simple, powerful idea that love, relationships, and belonging are essential to all people and that every person has the ability and responsibility to contribute. We are creating, day by day, a place of belonging, a place where people—with or without disabilities—feel welcomed, valued and loved.

Former assistant, Ilana, captures what it means to live a spiritual life at L’Arche in her essay “A Spirituality Vignette.”

Spirituality at L’Arche Portland is rooted in finding the sacred in the ordinary and in forming relationships by sharing time in daily activities. We hold that spirituality is within the most mundane details of the day when they are shared intentionally. We also believe that weaknesses and vulnerabilities are better welcomed and shared rather than hidden or shamed. Within L’Arche Portland, we strive to see our collective and individual “disabilities” as treasures that draw us into community, not shameful parts of our humanity that must be compensated for.

Spirituality at L’Arche Portland is rooted in finding the sacred in the ordinary and in forming relationships by sharing time in daily activities. We hold that spirituality is within the most mundane details of the day when they are shared intentionally. We also believe that weaknesses and vulnerabilities are better welcomed and shared rather than hidden or shamed. Within L’Arche Portland, we strive to see our collective and individual “disabilities” as treasures that draw us into community, not shameful parts of our humanity that must be compensated for.