Learn all you need to know about L’Arche Syracuse with the information below.
New friends and exciting opportunities are just around the corner!
L’Arche Syracuse
Skills Needed
An open spirit and a willingness to grow. All applicants must have a driver’s license. A minimum of a year commitment is required.
Geographic Location
Syracuse is in Central New York which is the Finger Lake Region and next to both the Catskill Mountain Range and the Adirondack Mountain Range. We are only a 1.5 hour drive from the Canadian border, and 4 hour drive to New York City, Toronto and Montreal, Canada. Central NY offers numerous indoor and outdoor sports opportunities, and many art, history and cultural museums. Syracuse University’s sports teams also bring nationally ranked basketball, football, soccer, and baseball teams to the area. L’Arche Syracuse allows you to drive our vans and cars. We are a launching place to visit and stay at other L’Arche communities in the U.S. and Canada.
L’Arche Syracuse has four homes that are dispersed throughout the city. Three homes are bikeable from each other and one home is a 10 minute drive. We have a small day program for one on one interactions. We also have a Tuesday Art Club and a Friday Movie Club where we not only make art and critique movies, but also do service projects, explore parks, and visit museums and the zoo.
Public Transportation
The Centro bus system provides public transportation around the city and Onondaga County as well as special routes for large events like the NYS Fair. Taxis, Uber and Lyft are all available in the area and ready to take you where you need to go. Syracuse has turned into a top biking and scooter town the last several years. The Syracuse area is home to several biking trails and connecting paths that can bring you all around the region. We have a few bikes for assistants to use. You can rent an electric bike or scooter via the Veo app and travel anywhere within Syracuse city limits. Assistants are often able to offer rides.
Community Demographics
Of our sixteen core members, three are young, five are middle aged, and seven are older. Assistants should be willing to work with core members with age-related conditions, and be open to seeing all core members as gifts.
Community Strengths
We make it a priority to use people’s gifts. We intentionally focus on finding a balance between personal and community time. Our community has an open spirituality. We have lots of community events. We are blessed with a wonderful community nurse and a Pastoral Minister.
Community Challenges
Our community has a lot of experience with aging issues. We are called to balance keeping an elevated quality of life as a person’s world gets smaller while at the same time engaging younger Core Members in interesting activities in the larger community.
What you should know before coming
Many of our volunteers sign up for a second or third year and we think that speaks volumes about their experience and our community.
Explore our website to learn more.
Contact L'Arche Syracuse
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