Well, I asked Facilitator Stephanie Browning to send me a couple of lines about what’s going on in our program with L’Arche Chicago. Her response outlined so many cool, creative happenings that I couldn’t choose just one thing to share, so I decided to put it all into a blog post!
L'Arche is an International Federation dedicated to the creation and growth of homes, programs, and support networks for people with intellectual disabilities. L’Arche Chicago welcomed its first core member in 2000, and has been growing ever since. Still Point began a program for the members there in late February of this year.
Stephanie is working with the group developing both musical and dramatic presentations.
Here’s Stephanie’s report on the participants’ musical pursuits:
“Christianne leads the singing to get us warmed up by choosing which song out of our L'Arche Songbook we'll sing first. She's partial to “Lean on Me “& “Ring of Fire”.
Elisha plays the drum and sometimes adds a piano solo on the Elvis tunes, especially “Love Me Tender”.
Mike brought in a Tim McGraw song that is working out great. He also introduced the Taylor Swift song "Shake it Off" which is a huge hit. It sounds fantastic when we all sing together - Jessica, Monica, and Hannah, and now we are so happy to welcome Nelson to the group - he's a guitar player!
We have talked about maybe adding some dance moves to the Taylor Swift song. I also suggested we could make up our own lyrics about L'Arche and life at the houses, the challenges we all face and how we respond to them. Shake it off!”
The group is developing an improvised play about a very special royal family. The family includes Christianne as the Princess, Hannah as her mother - the Imperious Queen, Mike as the King, and Elisha as their beautiful horse. (He's almost like a member of the family!)
In addition, Tim has been hard at work writing a delightful short play about the search for an extremely beloved red ‘69 BMW that goes missing.
Our program at L’Arche is one of five Still Point workshops focused on the needs and gifts of adults with developmental disabilities. All of Still Point’s Imagination Workshop ensembles operate in a spirit of nurturing and celebrating each individual’s unique creative voice. According to Stephanie’s report, it sounds as though there is never a dull moment in their sessions!
For more information about L'Arche Chicago, you may visit them at:
http://www.larchechicago.org/come-and-see#identity
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