A blog written by Joesph Beakhouse, Spirituality and Community Engagement Coordinator of L'Arche London
L’Arche London is one of 11 communities for adults with and without learning disabilities throughout the UK and in 38 countries.
What great fun! A challenging wellbeing walk in the hot, hot sun and a proper party in our fabulous garden - dancing to a steel band, sharing a curry and chatting with friends old and new.
Every year we ‘Walk Together’ in union. This year we were challenged to do that DIFFERENTLY so we decided to mix it up a bit.
Making our colourful neighbourhood even more vibrant in some wild fancy dress helped everyone’s humour and prompted engagement with people we passed along the way.
We invested some of our grant funding on a big new promotional flag, an external caterer and….London All Stars steel pan orchestra. We’re keen to engage more effectively with our neighbours so decided to walk locally - from our workshop in Norwood High Street to beautiful Dulwich Park and back to our own green oasis at Gothic Lodge to eat together, natter and dance to the joyful music.
20 people of many levels of mobility completed the whole walk, another 30 joined us to walk around Dulwich Park and over 70 enjoyed the party. We sold 12 of our daffodil-yellow tee-shirts to new friends as we walked – a first!
We’ll connect our new friends with our Walking Group and turn these one-off encounters into enduring relationship with wellbeing at their heart.
These events make communities. We love to be creative, to explore new ways, to be together, to celebrate what those we may label less able are really able to be.