Disabilities’ Barriers Will Melt in Home

After a dozen years of toil, now comes the hard part: selecting three from the pool of 16 mentally disabled applicants to live in California’s first L’Arche community.

As an international movement, L’Arche communities match disabled adults with assistants in Christian-influenced homes to share life as family and friends. “L’Arche” means “the ark” in French, a reference to Noah’s Ark, which provided refuge from the storm.

The Rev. Lyn Crow of Fullerton’s Emmanuel Episcopal Church said the only consolation in the heartbreaking task of rejecting 13 applicants for the new L’Arche venture in Fullerton is that “we have plans to open a second house soon.”

The promise of a spiritually rich place to set down roots for a lifetime is alluring to many aging parents who have mentally disabled adult children living with them or in traditional group homes and institutions.

“The difference [at L’Arche] is they are like a family,” said Mavis Cain, an 81-year-old in La Canada-Flintridge trying to get her 37-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome, into the Fullerton home. “They don’t have a staff that’s serving the disabled. They have people living together with people with disabilities.”

The concept of L’Arche was developed 39 years ago by French-Canadian Jean Vanier, a Catholic who believes that those with handicaps have a unique capacity of revealing human joy and suffering to others, revelations that lead to growth, healing and unity.

Since he began L’Arche outside Paris in 1964, more than 120 communities have been established in 30 countries. The U.S. has 14 L’Arche communities, in cities such as Seattle, Chicago, Cleveland and Washington.

The newest L’Arche community will take shape in a rented two-story house on a quiet cul-de-sac in Fullerton, with the disabled residents scheduled to arrive in February or March.

It will be home to three developmentally disabled adults -- called “core members” -- and two assistants who will live there full time. The assistants help the disabled residents get ready for the day, whether they are headed to a job or a day center. In the evening, after a family-style dinner, activities can include games, conversation, watching movies or studying the Bible. Celebrations -- almost any excuse will do, from birthdays to visits from families -- are frequent.

L’Arche communities usually evolve into a series of nearby homes within walking distance of each other.

“We’re excited to come to California,” said Clarissa Schoenberg, operations and projects coordination with L’Arche USA. “It opens a lot of possibilities for us” to introduce more people to the concept. “L’Arche is a well-kept secret.”

Karen Carr, executive director of the new Fullerton community -- called Wavecrest -- worked for five years in a L’Arche community in France. She returned to her home in Placentia in 1992, eager to start one in Orange County.

Government officials estimate that 13,000 people with developmental disabilities live in Orange County, more than 1,000 of them in Fullerton.

To qualify their effort as a L’Arche project, Carr and other organizers must meet a series of goals that include minimum numbers of volunteers and amounts of money raised.

Carr said her group has raised $60,000 from a broad coalition of churches and individuals and has 1,000 people on its mailing list.

“People have come from everywhere to help get us started,” Carr said. “We all have the same vision and purpose.”

She said it takes about $150,000 each year to fund a single home. The disabled residents cover room and board with their government assistance checks.

Bob Pietsch, a retired Presbyterian pastor in Orange and board member for the Fullerton home, said he wished a L’Arche home had been available decades ago for his son, Larry.

Born mentally retarded, Larry lived in 11 institutions and homes before dying 20 years ago at age 27. Pietsch said his son’s handicap contributed to the breakup of his first marriage and the suicide of his former wife.

Scarred by the experience, Pietsch earned a doctorate in theology by studying the Christian church’s outreach to the disabled.

His conclusion was that there “was as much resistance [to helping the disabled] within the church, or maybe more, than the rest of the society.”

L’Arche was one of the few programs Pietsch found that offered compassionate, Gospel-based outreach to the disabled.

“I’m so impressed and taken by the warmth, atmosphere and spiritual dimension of it all,” he said. “Theologically, this is a sign of hope for the community. We’re not just building another board-and-care home. This is how we should be living with the disenfranchised.”