The community of L’Arche in the Chicago area began in the early 1980s. A few people around Chicago who were drawn to the L’Arche charism began to hold Faith and Sharing Retreats, which are animated by the spirit of L’Arche and involve people with and without disabilities. The community included members of the Sonshine Group at Reba Place Church in Evanston,IL: people with and without disabilities who meet bi-monthly to share meals and faith.

In 1987, Jean Vanier, the Founder of L’Arche (see L’Arche Chicago in context) led a Faith and Sharing retreat at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago. The retreat brought together a small group, some of whom were already familiar with Vanier and L’Arche. This ecumenical group hoped to found a L’Arche Community in Chicago. In 1993, they began to meet regularly for prayer, discernment and discussion. Some of them had experience as assistants at other communities. Gerry McAuliffe, still a faithful supporter and friend today, had spent eight years with L’Arche founder Jean Vanier in the early days of the original community in Trosly, France. Martha and Dale Cooper had lived as assistants in the L'Arche community in Calgary, Canada. Gen Connor just returned from 5 years as House Responsible in L'Arche Victoria, BC.

The process of founding a L’Arche community is a dialogical one between the local group and L’Arche leadership. At that time, L’Arche North America was configured into Western US/Canada and Eastern US/Canada zones and within those zones, into smaller regions. Our founding group began talks with Western US/Canada Zone coordinator. When the US and Canada were reconfigured into national zones, the conversation continued with the new US Zone. The L'Arche community in Clinton, IA also provided support.

This informal group of friends incorporated as Friends of L’Arche, a not-for-profit corporation in 1995. In January of 1998, it welcomed Maria Zeimen, OSF as the founding director. For two years, Maria and the ten board members laid the groundwork for the founding of the new community. This included meeting with persons interested in being founding assistants, initiating relationships with potential core members, obtaining a Community Integrated Living Arrangement (CILA) license from the state of Illinois, establishing connections with other service providers, civic groups, churches and church groups, increasing the number of donors, obtaining limited start-up funds, working with volunteers, connecting with people in the area who had lived in L’Arche communities, hosting monthly dinners involving Sonshine group members, and publishing a newsletter.

In 1999, Jean Vanier came once more to Chicago. He met with the founding board and spoke at Holy Name Cathedral. An article about Jean and the L’Arche community in progress appeared in the Chicago Tribune. This article touched the heart of the owner of what is now our first home. Jean had told the young community very early on that God would lead it to the house, so that it would know where in this large city the community was mean to be. He was right. The owner of the house offered it rent-free for one year with the option to buy at the end of that year.

Elbert Lott worked as a maintenance man at Esperanza Community Services. Florence Lange also worked at Esperanza. When she learned from a co-worker about the beginning of L’Arche in Chicago, she recognized Elbert as someone with the L’Arche spirit. Elbert tells, with great animation, how he made his choice for L’Arche. Despite his love for bowling and his strong performance for his team, he opted to miss a tournament match to check out L’Arche. He made his choice (his team won, anyway) and was welcomed as the founding core member in June, 2000. He has more than lived up to this call and remains the “father of the house.” Jean and Michael came in November 2000. As happens sometimes, the fit was not right for Michael, who did not stay.

David and Laura came as founding assistants. Christianne came in April 2001 as the third core member. Tim came the next year, although he developed medical challenges that precluded his long term stay. His former room remained empty for a time, until Chris found us in 2005 and moved in as the fourth core member.

Throughout this time until the present, a number of assistants came from different backgrounds to share a year or two or three of life with us. Each left a piece of him or herself in the community. Over the same time, our circle of faithful friends and supporters continued to grow in numbers and dedication. Our core members and assistants have built strong and enduring relationships with the larger Oak Park/Chicago community, local faith communities, religious orders and student groups and other advocates and self-advocates within the larger disability rights movement, as well as with other L’Arche members at the regional, Zone and International Federation level. Today, we look forward to opening a second home and opening the doors to welcome more core members and assistants.