When Bryan Boyce (MNLEND 2020-21) took on the executive director/community leader role at L’Arche Twin Cities in late 2023, in addition to running his Cow Tipping Press literary writing classes for learners with developmental disabilities, the jobs had some obvious similarities. Both organizations incorporate the talents of people with and without disabilities, for example.
Cow Tipping hires writing coaches with and without disabilities to support authors, and L’Arche communities around the world create authentic relationships among people with and without disabilities. In the United States, these communities typically are centered around shared living spaces, with professional direct support, and other services. L’Arche began in France in 1964 as a reaction to the inhumane conditions of large institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Today, L’Arche is present in more than 38 countries across the world.
L’Arche Twin Cities, meanwhile, aims to provide intentional communities without walls, said Boyce, the organization’s first paid staff member. The group has been functioning through volunteer efforts for decades.
On Boyce’s watch, L’Arche has formed a cohort of 12 people who meet on the first Saturday morning of every month for “coffee and camaraderie” in L’Arche office space in Saint Paul, in addition to a variety of events and partnerships with other community organizations. Future cohorts and potential avenues for community building are to come, Boyce said.
“I think the idea of building a community without walls is phenomenal,” said Cebrina Williams, a longtime direct support professional who is part of the cohort. “The word has to get out about this, but once it does, I really think it can work. It’s bringing everyone to the table.”
The Institute on Community Integration’s Danielle Mahoehney, a Minnesota native who lived in an out-of-state L’Arche community after college, has been involved with the local group since 2012 and still serves on the board. Leah Welch, current board chair, lived in a L’Arche community in Seattle for several years and is also a longtime member of the local group.
“Getting beyond the group home model, we think there are better, more empowering ways for people to decide who they live with and where they live and how they live,” Boyce said. “Our service is community. If care happens to occur, or someone helps you eat your food or gets you a ride home, that’s great, but we’re not here primarily to provide direct care. We’re here to build social capital.”
And that’s where the similarities with Cow Tipping and Boyce’s longtime passion for disability advocacy go even deeper. Inspired by the creativity of his brother, who has developmental disabilities, Boyce envisioned Cow Tipping as a social enterprise that would change mindsets about disability through creative expression.
By upending the notion that community living depends on brick and mortar, he is aiming to change another narrative. This work, he said, is also reminiscent of the perspective shifts he saw as a MNLEND fellow, where colleagues from various fields learned to think differently about the people with disabilities they encounter.
“Everyone is hungry for connection on a deep and authentic level,” he said. “When we get together and have coffee and eat scones and have a check-in with everyone, there’s a degree of vulnerability and intimacy that is achieved through L’Arche that is different and better because it includes folks with IDD. Maybe it’s a levity, or a random comment or interruption or something else, but it’s just that ‘something’ that tends to happen when you’re part of an inclusive group.”
View Original Article
