L'Arche Portland

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 Portland runs three homes in SE Portland and Beaverton serving people with and without intellectual disabilities. We also engage with people in the greater Portland area who do not live in our homes but participate as they can in the life of the community. Beyond the daily life circle, L'Arche Portland serves an extended community of friends, volunteers and supporters in Oregon and all over the country, even throughout the world. L'Arche Portland is part of an international federation of 151 communities and 20 projects in 37 countries around the world. 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. Marilyn, one of our community members with a disability, may have summed it up best when she described L'Arche Portland as "a place where they want you." We are creating, day by day, a place of belonging, a place where people—with or without disabilities—feel welcomed, valued and loved.