Description of organisation

Arche Tirol is part of an international community of people with and without cognitive disabilities, who live and work together based on the Arche communities international Charta. This Charta includes, that every person has an unique value.
Arche Tirol was founded in 1992 and is a christian-ecumenical community. In our daily routine there is place for spirituality. The work in Arche considers the UN convention for people with disabilities.
At the moment 10 people are living in two houses, one house is in Steinach and one is in St. Jodok am Brenner (few kilometers distance).
Arche welcomes people with disabilities at the age of 18. At the moment, four people with cognitive disabilities live in the Arche-house in Steinach and six live in St. Jodok. Our main philosophy is not only nursing, but also offering a community, personal relationship and a home.
In Steinach there is a workshop and a "basal group" ("Basale Gruppe") for the people with disabilities. They produce candles, potteries, paper and bags. We sell these products. The Assistants try to support the people with disabilities in their cognition and self awareness.
The main tasks are care/nursing, household and creating a familiar and welcoming atmosphere for the disabled people. In order to reach this goal, we share life and work, sing and celebrate together and try to organize joyful and exciting days for our residents. Household contains for example cooking, tidying up, doing the laundry and cleaning up. We offer the people with cognitive disabilities a comprehensive daily life. So we have many weekly leisure activities. Volunteers accompany them (dancing, swimming, hiking,...).

Inclusion topics

This organisation is willing to involve volunteers who face situations which make their participation in activities more difficult, from the following categories for different types of project:

• Cultural differences
• Economic obstacles
• Educational difficulties