Members of L’Arche Mobile joined hundreds of others in Washington, D.C., in late May to celebrate 50 years of a worldwide movement built around shared living for people with intellectual disabilities.
The organization traces its roots to 1964, when founder Jean Vanier bought a small home north of Paris and began sharing daily life with two men who had been living in an institution. From that beginning, L’Arche grew into a network of roughly 140 member communities spread across 36 countries, each built on the same idea: people with intellectual disabilities living alongside team members as equals, not as residents of a facility.
For the Mobile chapter, the anniversary Jubilee carried extra weight because several of its core members were able to attend in person. Steven Mokrzycki and Willie McGhee, both longtime members of the Mobile community, took part in the celebration’s public assemblies. Mokrzycki helped read prayers during a service, while McGhee carried Mobile’s banner in one of the processions.
Willie McGhee has been part of the Mobile community for roughly four decades, and organizers said that during the Jubilee they could not find anyone elsewhere in the L’Arche network with a longer tenure. Chris McGugin, who works with L’Arche Mobile, said the milestone became a point of pride during conversations with visitors from other chapters.
Beyond the formal ceremonies, the trip included lighter moments. Mokrzycki said meeting core members from other communities and a visit to the zoo stood out to him, while McGhee pointed to a Friday afternoon of games and activities as a highlight. Both said they enjoyed a dance held on the final evening of the gathering.
The visit wasn’t purely celebratory. Adrian Anderson, a team member with the Mobile community, said she used part of the trip to speak with staff from Senator Jeff Sessions’ office about the potential impact of benefit cuts on core members like those she works alongside every day. Anderson, who grew up watching her mother work with L’Arche, said the conversations underscored how much day-to-day support depends on programs that can be vulnerable to funding changes.
L’Arche Mobile continues to operate as part of the larger international network, with team members and core members sharing homes and daily routines rather than a traditional caregiver arrangement. Organizers said the Washington trip reinforced the sense of connection between the small Mobile community and a much larger global family marking a half-century of shared life.