New homes and new beginnings happening for L’Arche Stratford

The future construction site at 426 Britannia St. where L’Arche Stratford will be breaking ground on a new community hub building in June. Pictured from left to right are Feltz Design Build project managers Cam Scott and Iain Reynolds, Be Belong Become capital campaign co-chair Elaine Clark-Siberry and L’Arche Stratford executive director Stephanie Calma.

L’Arche Stratford has been a vital organization helping community members living with disabilities to find a welcoming place to live and to grow a sense of independence.

With that in mind, L’Arche Stratford is excited to announce the beginning of construction of their new community hub at 426 Britannia St. with groundbreaking set for June of this year.

L’Arche is an international organization that creates communities where people with and without developmental disabilities can live and grow. Founded in 1964, L’Arche is now in around 138 communities worldwide, and is always working to expand.

“L’Arche Stratford has been around for about 50 years at this point, so we have very much been a part of the Stratford scene for a long time,” said Elaine Clark-Siberry, co-chair of the Be Belong, Become capital campaign in support of the new community hub building.

L’Arche Stratford is hoping the construction of this new facility will begin to cut away at the waitlist the organization is seeing for these kinds of facilities.

“There is such a huge need in the counties of Huron and Perth for residential support, activities support,” Clark-Siberry said.

Back in 2022, there were 486 requests in Huron-Perth just for residential support, and only 11 of those could be met – just three per cent.

“Since then, we’ve seen a 50 per-cent increase of need for that support,” Clark-Siberry said.

With the completion of the new facility, the building will reduce program waitlists by 65 per cent and the housing waitlist by 25 per cent thanks to 15,000 square-foot size. The centre will include eight living suites, activity rooms, eight offices and several rooms dedicated to helping those with L’Arche become independent.

Of course, construction of a building this size does not happen overnight; it takes time, careful planning and a dedicated community.

“The new design really caught fire in the community for the capital campaign. We were doing presentations at service clubs and, at one of those, an anonymous family came forward and donated $1 million (for a) matching campaign and then, four months later, someone walked in with a cheque for $1 million,” Dennis Goforth, the other co-chair of the Be Belong, Become campaign. “We still have a ways to go, but we are at 63 per cent of our goal right now. Of course, the last leg of the race is always the hardest but I think once we get shovels in the ground, we’ll see another surge of giving.”

To learn more about L’Arche and what it has to offer, visit their website at L’arche.org. L’Arche Stratford can also be found on social media at larche_stratford on Instagram and L’Arche Stratford on Facebook. To donate, click the “donate” button in the upper-right corner of the website’s home page.