LARC is a 501(c-3) non-profit organization which has served the needs of persons in the community with developmental disabilities for the past 50 years. LARC is situated on a beautiful 34-acre campus in the city of Lafayette, Louisiana upon which LARC’s subsidiary Acadian Village operation is also located.
Throughout its existence, LARC has dedicated itself to attaining the highest level of self-sufficiency for its clients and to meaningfully including them in the mainstream and workforce of the community.
History of LARC
The Lafayette Association For Retarded Citizens, Inc. (LARC) was formed some 50 years ago by a small group of parents of children with developmental disabilities who had no place to go for assistance in dealing with the unique needs of their children.
They, with determination of heart, set out to create an organization through which their children could be provided with vocational training and afforded opportunity for meaningful inclusion in the mainstream of the community and its workforce.
An elderly farmer by the name of Elias Alleman and his wife, Emily who had no children and had long wanted to donate their property to the cause of children with disabilities helped that dream come true in the form of donation to LARC of the beautiful 34-acres of property upon which LARC and its subsidiary Acadian Village operation are today located.
Unlike days of old when there was truly “nothing” for children with developmental disabilities, LARC is today a large non-profit corporation that, with benefit of a trained and professional staff, provides full-spectrum services to that population. Those services range from vocational, residential, cafeteria, in-home, supported independent, respite and other services; all of which have been designed to promote greater independence and self-sufficiency for persons in the community with developmental disabilities.
One of LARC’s primary goals is that of pursuing the highest level of self-sufficiency for each of its clients while, at the same time, providing each one with a dignity of being and an affirmation of self-worth. A key means to that end under the LARC umbrella is that of placement of those we serve, after appropriate vocational training, in productive on-campus and community-based employments. It is in that area, in particular, where LARC has been successful in creating employer and community awareness that the term “disability” does not mean “inability” on the part of LARC clients to effectively perform a broad range of jobs and tasks in the local community work force.
While LARC’s annual budget is today substantially funded by State of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospital (DHH) dollars, LARC must still rely heavily upon community fundraising and volunteerism in meeting the total development and enrichment needs of the population that it serves.
