ABOUT US

Founded in 1986, PAL Canada Foundation is the national “umbrella” organization of seven independent PAL chapters across the country, including Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, Stratford, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver. Each PAL chapter has its own unique requirements, which are defined by the needs of their local community of professional and performing artists.

The root and heart of PAL Canada is Supporting Cast, an outreach program that offers assistance to aging artists to help alleviate isolation, while also enabling them to lead meaningful, independent lives in their own homes. Elder artists tend to experience an increased level of social isolation due to the reality of the independent, inner expression, often required with their professions.

In its quest to fulfill its mission, PAL Canada has pivoted to develop virtual connectivity programs to “create caring communities and support programs, which allow senior members of Canada’s arts and entertainment industry to thrive”.

In our effort to be more accessible to our senior community and by taking an intergenerational approach, we are hybridizing our programs in the most effective and safe manner possible to allow for broader networking, and greater in-person community building across Canada.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

We create and advocate for caring communities and support programs, which empower senior members of Canada’s arts and entertainment industry to thrive.

OUR HISTORY

For many years, members of the Arts Community had decried the lack of care and support facilities for older members at a stage in their lives when these became increasingly necessary. However, momentum seemed to increase around 1983, and there was a crescendo of voices asking for serious investigation into the treatment of senior artists: professionals who had given their lives to the Arts. Usually, their dedication was met with insufficient recompense to enable them to live out their remaining years amongst like-minded people, in their own milieu, with available health facilities and a modicum of physical and financial security.

A professional theatre company in Toronto, The Smile Theatre Company, commented on the growing number of older performing artists living in circumstances that were sometimes heart-breaking; unable to keep their homes (if they had been able to accumulate one while in the finicky market of Canadian Culture), ending their days in an institution ill-suited and ill-prepared for the sometimes difficult characteristics of the older artist. In such an atmosphere, alienated from “their old buddies”, living in a place where few, if any, knew their background, and out of touch with colleagues in similar situations. These artists were unhappy to say the least.