Association aims to help Laval seniors

The Association for Seniors Living in Laval (APARL) helps address the social, physical and mental needs of the seniors aged 50 and up.

For 38 years APARL has targeted retired, independent or semi-independent seniors in St. Francis, Saint Vincent de Paul and Duvernay neighbourhoods, where it offers assistance and services that to help break their potential solitude.

APARL, which employs eight to nine people to provide a variety of services to seniors in need, is housed in the Groulx Community Centre at 4901 Saint-Joseph in Saint Vincent de Paul.

“We can give them the resources they need” Danielle Lamy, APARL community living host said. “But they have to want to be helped. We can’t force them.”

APARL holds programs, workshops and services for seniors year round. Some involve grocery runs, where seniors who can’t shop for groceries themselves are picked up in a van and taken to a supermarket.

It also offers several courses such as Spanish, English, singing, dancing, Japanese embroidery, meditation and tennis.

Activities include painting and drawing, cooking, picnics, biking and more.

Other than the English courses, all activities and workshops are conducted in French.

“Most people we get are French,” Lamy said. “To have more things in English, we’d have to have people asking for it, but for now it’s not happening.”

Lamy says that it still might happen, but that they have to “wait and see if they’ll be a need.”

APARL also offers assistance to seniors who have lost their wife or husband and need someone to talk to or to help fill out any paperwork of any kind.

They also provide useful information for seniors, like locations of hospitals, general information (banks, passports, etc.) health and financial planning.

For more information on the services offered, visit www.aparl.org