L'Arche Atlanta is an Atlanta-based nonprofit that supports adults with intellectual and development disabilities (IDD). In the L'Arche Atlanta community, people with IDD (whom we call Core Members) are not clients, patients, or recipients of services. Instead, they are friends, teachers, and companions, who, through daily acts of care, trust, and friendship, develop into ambassadors of compassion and leaders for social change. L'Arche Atlanta launched its first house in 2012 in the Oakhurst neighborhood of Decatur and is now one of over 150 global communities in the International Federation of L'Arche. L'Arche was founded in 1964 as a response to the mass institutionalization of people with intellectual disabilities and has since spread to over 140 communities in 35 countries. For over 50 years, L’Arche has brought about a revolution in quality of life for people who have developmental disabilities.
