Live in Assistant

  Canada

Nova Scotia

Term: Fall, Spring, Summer, Winter 
Length of Position: 1 year
Duration of Program: 1-2 years
Dates: on going

Description:
Responsibilities:

As an assistant at L'Arche Cape Breton your time is spent learning about and assisting the people with whom you share a home with. Responsibilities include cooking and cleaning together, planning day trips and vacations, participating in regular community activities (like community prayer, summer bonfires, meetings and Winter Games) as well as helping people with all the basic tasks of daily life, such as personal care (bathing, picking out cloths to ware etc.). You will have regular scheduled days away, personal vacation time, yearly retreats, and opportunities for formation and training.

Assistants also help out in our work programs, of which there are six.
The workshop, where we make crafts, The Ark Store and Hope Chest, where we sell our crafts along with second hand cloths, the Siesta Club, for our aging core members, the Caper Club and in the summer of 2008, we began an organic garden project, which will supplies fresh vegetables and flowers to our six houses and work programs.

Fill out an application! Tell your friends

"The secret of L'Arche is relationship: meeting people, not through the filters of certitude, ideologies, idealism or judgments but heart to heart; listening to people with their pain, their joy, their hope, their history; listening to their hearts beat." - Jean Vainer

Highlights:
L'Arche Cape Breton is a non-profit charitable organization, and is looking for energetic, open-minded, and enthusiastic individuals to spend time as live-in assistants in our community. We provide homes and work places for people with disabilities. It can be a way to learn about community development, have fun, to discover the beauty of people with disabilities, and to learn about yourself. Cape Breton is a rural island rich in natural wonders!

We are currently starting an organic garden project where we hope to grow our own food and live more sustainable. Assistants and core people would work together in the garden, learning about where our food comes from, how to compost and preserve the harvest.

L'Arche assistants come from every age bracket and every walk of life. Here at L'Arche Cape Breton, many of our assistants are young - between 18-30 - and come to us during or after their post-secondary education. They are enthusiastic, open-minded individuals who have found something lacking in the academic world and are seeking a way to integrate their classroom learning with 'real life'. Assistants are attracted by the spirited, youthful atmosphere of our community and the intensity of life with men and women with disabilities.

* Live in Beautiful surroundings
* meet people from all around the world
* build relationships with people with disabilities
* learn about your self

Qualifications: Applicants to L'Arche Cape Breton need not have previous experience or training. Any and all training you need is provided during your first three months in the community.

However, we are looking for people who are:

* Positive and Open Minded
* People who want to make a difference in the world
* Are able to work on a team
* Mature and Honest
* Creative ( enjoy crafts, singing, playing music)
* Able to work under stress
* Enjoy working with people and respectful of diversity

Minimum Education: High School

Experience Required: yes

We provide all the training

Typical Volunteer: looking for energetic, open-minded, and enthusiastic individuals

Age Range: 18-55

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Couples and Individuals

Participants Travel to Canada Independently or in Groups

Typically Participants Work Independently or in Groups of 5

Application Process Involves:

• Letters of Reference
• Online Application plus Application Assessment
• Phone Interview
• Resume

L'Arche Cape Breton's Mission Statement: L'Arche Cape Breton is an ecumenical, Christian community. At the heart of our community are people with developmental disabilities and those who choose to share life with them. We are inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's vision of community, based on a life of simplicity, sustained by the work of our hands, and nourished by the mystery of God's presence in all religions, races, and creeds. At the heart of our unity must be the poorest, the weakest, and those who suffer; those for whom God's preference is shown and with whom God identifies.

Year Founded: 1983

L'Arche Cape Breton is a ecumenical, Christian based organization. We do not require our participants to be of the same faith. Our volunteers will not be involved in religious proselytizing.