Vanier Student Leadership: Consider spending a “Gap” year in a L’Arche Community

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Consider spending a “Gap” year in a L’Arche Community

L’Arche welcomes many high school graduates and university students as live-in assistants. Spending a year as a L’Arche assistant is a wonderful opportunity to learn, to grow and to discover your gifts, to make new friends, to serve, to make a difference in the lives of others, and to help change our world. For more information and an application go to: www.larche-work.ca

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WHAT IS THE CHOOSING OUR FUTURE CURRICULUM?

This is a high school curriculum that brings young men and women to ask questions about the issues we face in today's world. Based on excellent video and audio material, with accompanying discussion guides, Jean Vanier leads students through issues of belonging, choosing our future, inclusion, and making a difference in their world.

“Choosing Our Future” was designed by L’Arche Canada and the film which is part of Choosing Our Future was jointly produced by L’Arche Canada and the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

About Jean Vanier

In 1964, Canadian Jean Vanier invited two men who had developmental disabilities to live with him in a house in the French village of Trosly-Breuil. He named the house L'Arche. Gradually, many more men and women with developmental disabilities came to L’Arche.

Acclaimed as “a Canadian who inspires the world” (Maclean’s Magazine) and a “nation builder” (The Globe and Mail), and author of the best-selling book, Becoming Human, Jean Vanier is the founder of L’Arche. He is recipient of numerous honours and awards recognizing his humanitarian work and his leadership as a social visionary. Among these he is a Companion of the Order of Canada.

The son of Governor-General Georges Vanier and Pauline Vanier, Jean Vanier served in the Navy before obtaining his doctorate in philosophy and, in 1964, beginning the L’Arche movement.

Jean Vanier has become a leader in consciousness-raising about the suffering of all who are marginalized. He is internationally recognized for his compelling vision of what it means to live a fully human life and for his social leadership in building a compassionate society.

About L'Arche

Since then, L'Arche has grown into an international federation of more than 134 local organizations in over 30 countries on six continents. In Canada L’Arche is a national network of almost 200 homes and programs that provide a wide range of support for those with developmental disabilities. L’Arche also provides educational curriculum that reaches 400,000 high school students each year. L’Arche engages students and educators, non-profit leaders, policy makers, and decision makers in an ongoing conversation about our common goal of creating a caring, compassionate, and inclusive society.

Forty years of learning from people with disabilities has led L’Arche to identify a special ‘intelligence of the heart’ that is manifest in the lives of those who have an intellectual disability. Part of L’Arche’s mission is to publicize the radical insight that those who are so often on the edges of society are the very people who can help us focus on the qualities of life that make us more fully human.

L’Arche has been called “a university of the heart” for the many young university graduates who come to L’Arche to be caregivers. They give of themselves, form life-changing relationships, learn teamwork and leadership skills, and in the process clarify their values and life choices.

Vanier Student Leadership