Disabled Live With Dignity at Decatur's L’Arche House

A special house opened recently at 305 Mead Road in Decatur.

L'Arche Atlanta is home to a mixture of people, some with developmental disabilities and some without, who live together in faith-based communities.

A story about L'Arche in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that

The house, which opened last month in Decatur’s Oakhurst community and is the only L’Arche home in Georgia, has six occupants. That sum is equally comprised by “core residents” — those needing help in their daily lives — and “assistants” who’ve signed up to spend at least a year living with them. ...

L’Arche is French for “the ark,” a reference to the floating refuge Noah created at God’s command. It began in 1964 when Frenchman Jean Vanier opened his home to two developmentally disabled adults. He had no grand plan. Vanier simply believed people of differing physical and mental abilities could live together, respecting the capabilities of one another.

“To work for community,” he later wrote, “is to work for humanity.”

The ribbon-cutting for L'Arche Atlanta was held Oct. 27.