De Ark - Gemeenschap Gent

Ark Gent is a community-based care facility where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together. Relationships are at the heart of our approach. We try to empower people by building a network around them. We work on a small scale to create a more human society and give people opportunities to grow. De Ark Gent has one house with a inclusive daycare centre in Drongen (near Ghent). Every day, the people with intellectual disabilities go with a professional working in shops, leisure-center and factories in the neighbourhood. We are working close together with De Ark Moerkerke-Brugge, Antwerpen and Gouda. De Ark Gent is part of the big international network of l'Arche communities, originally founded in 1964 in France by Jean Vanier. Important accent of L'Arche are: 1. Mutual relationships are at the heart of our approach. We try to empower people by building a network around them. 2. We work on a small scale to create a more human and solidair society and give people opportunities to grow. We live in a house in the village near Ghent. 3. Making known the gifts of people with disabilities. They have very often the talent of enthusiasm, spontaneity and accepting their vulnerability. They awaken the heart of people and make people more solidair, open, tolerant and gentle. These are gifts for the world. 4. Personal contact by sharing life: peacebuilding, being more tolerant and experiencing solidarity to people who are different, starts by personal contacts and sharing daily life. By sharing lives we promote a more peaceful and solidair world for every human being. Big changes starts little by little, one heart at a time. 5. Interdependency and mutuality: we also believe that bringing people with and without disabilities together benefits everyone involved. Working with people with intellectual disabilities does not mean one-way giving and helping. Our experience is that people who get a connection with disabled people, also learn from them. They start seeing the world differently, taking more time to enjoy the smaller things in life, and looking at people in a different way. We want as many people as possible to experience this. On this moment, there are 7 people withe intellectual disabilities who are living in the house. We are looking to welcome 2 extra people with disabilities. We have 3 students who are doing their studies in Ghent and who are also living in the house and sharing their lives. On this moment, we have one volunteer who is working as a professional outside De Ark Gent and is making De Ark Gent as his home. We have 4 paid professionals who are working in the house, one is also living in the house. Everybody is invited to share their lives and to help each other where necessary. Thanks to the paid professionals, the care of the people with disabilities is garantueed. The people with disabilities goes working every day. Everybody has his personal working project. It can be: working in a daycare-center in another organisation, working with a farmer or gardener, staying in the house to do some house holding tasks, going to do volunteering work in a small group with a paid professional. We find it very important to have as much as possible a 'normal' life. We have a lot of friends who are feeling at home in our house. They come to drink coffee, to help with household tasks (f.e. ironing), going out,... We are an open house where everybody is welcome. We have monthly an open evening 'Arkaffee' and several community gatherings during the year. On these moments, we invite people to come to our community and having a nice time together. We are very open to the neighbourhood and are participating as much as possible to activities in society like festivals, walks, barbecues,...