Community Visionary: Jane Ross | Camrose’s Association for Life-wide Living of Alberta

Changing social perceptions about people with disabilities is an ongoing battle, but around the world, advocates are beginning to change those views one step, one word and one attitude at a time. Here in Alberta, Camrose’s Jane Ross has spent nearly 20 years doing just that, by shining a light on the “ability” in “disability.”

Jane is the President of the Association for Life-wide Living of Alberta (ALL). The organization

launched in 2004 when Jane and a few other community members got together to discuss the wellbeing of seniors living in long-term care in the Camrose area. Jane and her colleagues saw that the people living in long-term care, as well as their families, were really struggling.

“There seemed to be a divide between the rhetoric of institutional care and what was actually happening in the lives of individuals,” says Jane. “Something needed to be done.”

On a Sunday evening that November, 46 people gathered to talk about the issues faced by seniors and their families. They formed a support group that very night. Seven years later, in response to community feedback, the group registered to become a society. “We were faced with several things that people felt were really important that weren’t just about long-term care,” says Jane.

“There seemed to be a divide between the rhetoric of institutional care and what was actually happening in the lives of individuals.” 

A year later, the Association held its first-ever Culture, Creativity and Place Conference in 2012. The conference brought together rural folks, Indigenous neighbours and key thought leaders from all over Canada to explore new ideas and share meaningful conversations about rural life and what it means to face adversity. “That conference was a real game changer for us,” says Jane. The second conference of its kind was held in rural Australia just four years later, further building on the profound friendships and sharing of ideas that continue to this day. 

Throughout those first years as a society, Jane had many meaningful conversations with people of all ages and backgrounds in the Battle River Region. One of the most impactful was a conversation with three long-term care residents whom Jane calls the “three wise women.”

One of these women was Irene Hewitt, a 90-year-old, blind, retired journalist who was eager to find her place in the world again. Irene had “wonderful insights and stories,” so Jane made sure to take the time to listen to her. “When we were looking for a name for our society, Irene said, ‘Oh, don’t call it Lifelong learning. Life gets long enough. Call it life-wide living.’ She was describing the need that people have to live, no matter what their physical or mental state is at their age,” says Jane.

“I think it’s my role to encourage and support and lift other people up and give them a sense of their own vision.”

Over the years, Jane helped Irene and the other wise women write some of their impactful stories. She eventually turned their stories into a book, called Beauty Everyday: Stories from Life as it Happens. “It’s dedicated to exploring adversity and how people deal with adversity and overcome it. And we discovered that in each case, adversity has a counterpart in adventure.”

The idea of adventure in adversity has been a guiding force for Jane and the team at the association. Since then, their focus has been on something Jane likes to call “possibility thinking.” 

Simply put, possibility thinking means changing from a focus on what a person can’t do, to the things that they’re able to do. “So, you simply ask, ‘What can you do?’ and the lights start to come on and they will say ‘I can see,’ or ‘I can think,’ or ‘I can sit,’ and it’s remarkable basing recovery and rehabilitation on this strength-based possibility thinking.”

It’s a way of thinking that works with cognitive rehabilitation and physical rehabilitation.

A few years ago, Jane’s husband, Jack, suffered a brain hemorrhage stroke. He has been on his own recovery journey since. For the first five months, Jack was in the hospital and when it was time to leave, the care team recommended long-term care.

Jane, being an advocate for older adults to age in place, made the decision that Jack would recover at home. “That was an enormous task to figure out how to get him by lift into bed and out of bed and to the washroom and you name it,” says Jane. “Not everybody can do it, but we did and thankfully, I had the knowledge and the physical strength to be able to.” 

Although it was a tough decision for the couple, Jack’s recovery story has been a positive one. With Jane as his support system at home, Jack has looked at his recovery through a lens of exercising possibility thinking, which helped him to restore much of the life he was told was lost. 

In early 2023, with the help of a Vision Credit Union Helping Hand Grant, Jane and the team at ALL were able to obtain a mobile bungee walker to help those with mobility difficulties. Jack was one of the first to try out the new technology and although it took a lot of hard work and dedication, Jack is now learning to walk again with hope that never falters. 

The couple remains an inspiration for others in recovery and Jane hopes to encourage others around her to keep living, no matter what adversity they face. “I think it’s my role to encourage and support and lift other people up and give them a sense of their own vision,” she says. “I’ve been privileged to experience a great many things in the world and if I can use my network to help other people, I’m thrilled about that.”