Dear members of the Year One programme of the Leadership Development Project,

Transcription

1 Building communities with people who have learning disabilities Relationship Transformation - Sign in the UK 10 th September 2015 Dear members of the Year One programme of the Leadership Development Project, I am delighted that you will be forming the Year One cohort of the L Arche UK Leadership Development Project which begins later this month. The first year of this two year project will be critical in shaping the future leadership of L Arche in the UK not just for the duration of the two year project but into the next decade, so you will be acting on behalf of all of us as together with the other participants you identify what works well in leadership in L'Arche today and how we can strengthen leadership for the future. In addition you will be receiving a precious opportunity to develop your own personal leadership. Thank you for making this commitment that will benefit your community and wider L Arche. Below I offer some thoughts on the journey of L Arche in the UK through recent times and the possible potential futures that may emerge tomorrow depending on how our communities choose to grow and the shape of the leadership we will choose to nurture. I hope this reflection will provide a context for your explorations, research and learning as Leadership Development Project participants today and as a leader yourself tomorrow. Peace, John Sargent L'Arche is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales, No L'Arche is registered as a charity in England & Wales, No , and in Scotland, No. SCO38493 Registered Office: 10 Briggate, Silsden, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD20 9JT

2 Walking by Faith: L Arche UK Leadership into the Next Decade. Where might our shared journey take us tomorrow? Every one of our communities is asking this question as we reflect on our journey in recent years both as individual communities and together as L Arche in the UK and as we look forward along the road ahead and imagine what we might be called to be tomorrow. Last year, the National Council and the Service & Community Sub-Committee identified and plotted the major trends that have impacted on L Arche in the last 5-10 years, and then projected these through the coming decade and beyond to attempt to discern what might shape L Arche over the next ten to twenty years and how we might respond. I invite you to imagine our Mission and ourselves in some of the possible and exciting futures below: Shared living, as expressed through our eating, praying and celebrating together, continues to be the central key element of community life but is expressed through a diversity of settings, just one of which is the long held L Arche tradition of a large, shared group home. The number of the live-in assistants has diminished and is supported and supplemented by a larger, local live-out assistants body. The number of volunteer members has also significantly increased and these are now a vital part of community operations and belonging. The differing needs of live-out, part-time and voluntary members in terms of formation and support, and in ways of belonging, will be consciously and clearly held and reviewed by their community, so that a sense of different but equal value is conveyed and received clearly. With an increasing variety of ways of belonging, we have a greater diversity of voices of people with learning disabilities who are visibly employed and active within L Arche and contribute to the running of L Arche. As a result we are not known for one model, but rather we are known as an organisation that adapts and changes, innovates and can be relied on to do new things to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities by people with and without learning disabilities. The Chair of the National Speaking Group has called L Arche in the UK to go beyond care and support in expressing its Mission and instead primarily be a promoter of relationship and belonging. He offers the diagram below to illustrate how the current reduction in employed live-in assistants invites and requires the growing of the outer circle of nonemployed members. He suggests that we are moving from a model of employment to belonging. Through creating welcoming and inclusive conditions for belonging, we have made non-employed membership of a L Arche community something that is highly 2

3 valued and so heightens the profile, engagement and impact of the communities on their local neighbourhood and wider society. New L Arche communities are being founded that do not offer commissioned service provision but where the members meet together twice weekly to eat, pray & celebrate. The profile of both people with learning disabilities and L'Arche communities has been dramatically strengthened through a greater focus on being outward-facing. Primarily this orientation has been taken to both serve the Mission and also to ensure a good base for fundraising and securing income streams. This re-focus has led to an increased number of local partnerships and networks, and strengthened engagement with Churches and other faith organisations. Significantly, the proportion of non-employed community members has increased accordingly, with a greater variety of ways of being part of the Community. The ability of statutory funding streams to meet needs has dropped, but partnerships that run services have increased, alternative funding streams have been identified and the fundraising capacity of L Arche UK has increased too. The regulatory environment is well understood and we engage with their key processes with confidence e.g. tendering. 3

4 In light of the above possible futures that we might want to create for ourselves, what might L Arche in the UK need from its local and national leadership in the next decade? In an increasingly secular world, we will need to be clear about our identity as faith-based communities and our mission to reveal the gifts of people with learning disabilities to society. We will need to develop leadership at all levels in order to meet these different but complementary emphases. Leadership will be well-formed and committed to balancing the needs of service, compliance and quality assurance with community growth and development which includes ensuring a healthy and vibrant community spiritual life. We will lead from a holistic vision of what it means to flourish as a human person materially, relationally & spiritually. If we are to envision beyond our current understanding of service provision as we are called by the National Speaking Group to do, then we need leadership that is relational and ambitious for the empowerment of people with learning disabilities, having a clear vision for belonging as the primary reality, as well as employment. If we are to respond to the call to grow and nourish our body of non-employed members then we need everyone to share in leadership: every member will be an ambassador for L Arche: responsible for outreach, engagement and welcome of others on a daily basis. We will need to build on our current creativity in many ways, so we will need leadership that not only has the ability to take greater risk, but also has the willingness to do so. We will therefore need to be able to practice continuous analysis and evaluation of the steps we take and the quality of the expressions of mission that result. We will need to keep our eye firmly on the mission and allow this focus to continually re-shape the projects and services we run. In an increasingly complex world we will need our leadership to be able to digest this complexity, to anticipate, make accessible and understandable for others emerging key themes and critical factors, within an approach to people development that prioritises the leadership development of everyone. 4

5 We need leaders who regularly sit at table with our members, to eat, pray and celebrate together, and who then stand up from table and take courageous action that serves the Mission. But most of all perhaps whatever the future that emerges, we will need leadership that is able to inspire and call others to share our mission, to articulate why we do what we do, to build relationship, to hold our vision. Fundamentally this means a leadership that is fully conscious of its role as formator. For without vision the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18) I invite everyone to take part in creating our future together a future where the mission of L Arche flourishes in evermore creative ways, where we are led by the voices of our members with learning disabilities and the fruits of mutual relationships. Peace, John. End.. 5