[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":173},["ShallowReactive",2],{"activist-section-olive-bryanton-forming-her-activism":3,"activist-olive-bryanton":75},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":61,"extension":67,"meta":68,"navigation":69,"oldPath":70,"path":71,"seo":72,"stem":73,"__hash__":74},"activistSections\u002Factivists\u002Folive-bryanton\u002F01.forming-her-activism.md","Forming Her Activism",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":60},"minimark",[9,14,18,22,28,31,34,37,40,44,49,52,57],[10,11,13],"h2",{"id":12},"childhood-learning","Childhood learning",[15,16,17],"p",{},"Olive Bryanton was raised to regard elders as important members of their community who were worthy of esteem based on an accumulation of life experience. Older family members were respected for their wisdom and acted as mentors for younger members. This was not so much discussed but rather a lived reality. As a child, for example, Olive would never have imagined that anyone would abuse an older person—\"It was just unthinkable!\"—but life experience has unfortunately forced her to accept that senior abuse is a prevailing reality.",[10,19,21],{"id":20},"university-based-learning","University-based learning",[23,24,25],"blockquote",{},[15,26,27],{},"You have to kind of grab the opportunities as they present themselves.",[15,29,30],{},"After working as a Licensed Nursing Assistant, Olive enrolled as a full-time mature student in UPEI for four years, graduating with a degree in Sociology and Canadian Studies. She realized at once that older, mature students were given little recognition whether they lived on or off campus, which motivated her to join forces with some of her peers to start the association called Mature and Part-time University Students, or MAPUS.",[15,32,33],{},"As it happened, UPEI was in the process of changing the university's governing legislation at this time, and seeing her chance to gain a seat for part-time and mature students on the Senate, Olive and her group lobbied skilfully and swiftly to ensure a seat would be built into the legislation.",[15,35,36],{},"She got wind that the UPEI Student Council was about to make changes to its constitution, and one of the changes was to impose a fee on part-time students without offering any voting privileges in return. As a full-time student, Olive offered to help with the re-writing process. The Council knew why she offered to help and responded with an offer of a non-voting seat for Part-time students. A non-voting seat was not acceptable to Olive. So rather than compromise a principle, the Student Council decided not to impose a fee on part-time students. MAPUS became the representative of part-time students and collected the fee to provide services for that segment of the student population.",[15,38,39],{},"Undaunted, and looking for learning opportunities, Olive got her chance when she was invited to serve on the Board of the Canadian Organization of Part-time University Students (COPUS), which turned out be just what she wanted - \"a real learning experience\" about the role of part-time students in Canadian Universities and the economics and politics of post secondary university education as it related to educational choices for part-time students.",[10,41,43],{"id":42},"undervaluing-seniors","Undervaluing seniors",[23,45,46],{},[15,47,48],{},"It would be nice if somehow we could pass some knowledge on [as seniors] and people would accept it and not have to repeatedly make the same mistakes.",[15,50,51],{},"Olive was gathering many examples of what was, in effect, self-prejudicial thinking by seniors—an internalized devaluation absorbed from social beliefs that they were no longer useful to their community. Such thinking, Olive thought, could only lead to the unnecessary waste of resources.",[23,53,54],{},[15,55,56],{},"You saw seniors—people who retired from very responsible jobs—start to think they knew nothing. They felt they didn't have anything to contribute and their knowledge was passé… many thought because they were not computer literate, they had nothing else to offer.",[15,58,59],{},"This lack of social recognition and self-respect were not the only problems Olive was gathering into her critical thinking net.",{"title":61,"searchDepth":62,"depth":62,"links":63},"",2,[64,65,66],{"id":12,"depth":62,"text":13},{"id":20,"depth":62,"text":21},{"id":42,"depth":62,"text":43},"md",{},true,"\u002Folive-bryanton\u002Fforming-her-activism","\u002Factivists\u002Folive-bryanton\u002Fforming-her-activism",{"title":5,"description":61},"activists\u002Folive-bryanton\u002F01.forming-her-activism","aCUbiBusV2snG6uzhGy8XzzDADJDt-3dQseUEN0rCxQ",{"id":76,"title":77,"body":78,"description":126,"extension":67,"links":127,"meta":137,"navigation":69,"oldPath":138,"path":139,"pictures":140,"portrait":150,"portraitAlt":151,"province":152,"quote":153,"sections":154,"seo":169,"stem":170,"summary":171,"__hash__":172},"activists\u002Factivists\u002Folive-bryanton\u002Findex.md","Olive Bryanton",{"type":7,"value":79,"toc":124},[80,91,94,97,100,109,112,121],[15,81,82,83,90],{},"Busy as usual, Olive Bryanton had only been at her University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) office a short time before Liz Burge arrived to interview her. When Liz had been president of the ",[84,85,89],"a",{"href":86,"rel":87},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.stu.ca\u002Fresearch\u002F3rdage",[88],"nofollow","Third Age Centre"," at St. Thomas University, she had met Olive, who had come to give a talk there. Liz was now eager for an update on Olive's indefatigable activism. What followed were two-and-a-half hours of lively, focused reflection on past and present social challenges.",[15,92,93],{},"Born in 1936, Olive was raised by her grandparents in Kensington, PEI. In 1952, she graduated from grade 10, the highest grade of high school at the time, and worked in Summerside from 1952 to 1956 in retail stores. She married, and between 1955 and 1966 bore five children.",[15,95,96],{},"After attending night school for secretarial skills, Olive went to the Central School of Nursing from 1968 to 1969 and graduated as a Licensed Nursing Assistant. She worked at the PEI Hospital in Obstetrics from 1969 to 1971, and with a medical specialist from 1971 to 1980. For five years in the latter half of the '70s, she owned and managed a small community care facility, which she sold in order to focus more fully on school.",[15,98,99],{},"In 1984, at the age of 47, she received her degree from UPEI with a major in Sociology and a minor in Canadian Studies. From 1984 to 1987, Olive worked for St. John Ambulance as a Healthcare and First Aid Director. It was in the late 1980s that she began to work in earnest on issues related to seniors. In 1988, Olive worked for the PEI Gerontology Association, researching and writing a book on housing options for older adults on PEI. At the same time, she organized a Seniors' Housing Conference with Canada Mortgage and Housing.",[15,101,102,103,108],{},"From 1989 to 2000, Olive served as Coordinator of the PEI Senior Citizens' Federation and founded a newspaper called ",[84,104,107],{"href":105,"rel":106},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.peiscf.com\u002Fvoice_for_island_seniors.html",[88],"Voice for Island Seniors",". In 1992, she began the process of establishing a Seniors' Centre in Charlottetown, which was officially opened in January 1993. Olive served as President of the Seniors' Centre for two years and presently chairs the Education Committee.",[15,110,111],{},"In 1998, the Seniors' College of UPEI was formally launched. The following year, Olive researched and initiated a provincial PEI Seniors' Safety Program, together with the RCMP, the Public Trustee, and Consumer Services—for which she is the current President.",[15,113,114,115,120],{},"Working as Coordinator for the ",[84,116,119],{"href":117,"rel":118},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.upei.ca\u002Fprojects\u002Fcsha",[88],"PEI Centre on Health and Aging"," at UPEI since 2000, Olive's activities range widely from her involvement with the Seniors' Safety Program, to Chair of the Young at Heart Musical Theatre for Seniors, Board of Directors for Community Legal Information Association, and Board of Directors for the United Way of PEI.",[15,122,123],{},"In May 2000, Olive received an Honorary Degree from the University of Prince Edward Island, Doctor of Laws (LL.D.). Nine years later she graduated with a Master in Education degree with thesis.",{"title":61,"searchDepth":62,"depth":62,"links":125},[],"Busy as usual, Olive Bryanton had only been at her University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) office a short time before Liz Burge arrived to interview her. When Liz had been president of the Third Age Centre at St. Thomas University, she had met Olive, who had come to give a talk there. Liz was now eager for an update on Olive's indefatigable activism. What followed were two-and-a-half hours of lively, focused reflection on past and present social challenges.",[128,131,134],{"url":129,"title":130},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.theguardian.pe.ca\u002FOpinion\u002FEditorials\u002F2010-10-12\u002Farticle-1840912\u002FThis-scam-can-happen-to-you\u002F1","The Guardian: This scam can happen to you",{"url":132,"title":133},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.cbc.ca\u002Fnews\u002Fstory\u002F2001\u002F02\u002F23\u002Fpei_insurclaim.html","CBC: Older drivers claim age discrimination",{"url":135,"title":136},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.cbc.ca\u002Fnews\u002Fstory\u002F2001\u002F03\u002F09\u002Fseniors_insurance010309.html","CBC: Seniors charged higher rates for being old",{},"\u002Fcontent\u002Folive-bryanton","\u002Factivists\u002Folive-bryanton",[141,144,147],{"image":142,"caption":143},"\u002Fimages\u002Factivists\u002Folive-bryanton\u002Fpicture-1.jpg","Olive Bryanton receives cheque from RCMP officer for funding for the PEI Seniors' Safety Program.",{"image":145,"caption":146},"\u002Fimages\u002Factivists\u002Folive-bryanton\u002Fpicture-2.jpg","Olive Bryanton with participants of Bridging the Generation Gap.",{"image":148,"caption":149},"\u002Fimages\u002Factivists\u002Folive-bryanton\u002Fpicture-3.jpg","Hank Stinson serenades Olive Bryanton with \"I Love the Sardines in Your Hair\". From Young at Heart Theatre Rotary Magazine.","\u002Fimages\u002Factivists\u002Folive-bryanton\u002Fportrait.jpg","Portrait of Olive Bryanton.","Prince Edward Island","I’ve always tried to make things more equal for older people and have them recognized as viable citizens in our society, citizens we need. That’s not easy when they don’t see themselves as being necessary to society. It is sad that you can’t appreciate that you have contributed to this society.",[155,157,160,163,166],{"slug":156,"label":5},"forming-her-activism",{"slug":158,"label":159},"practising-social-activism","Practising Social Activism",{"slug":161,"label":162},"projects","Projects",{"slug":164,"label":165},"creating-change-lessons-skills-and-advice","Creating Change: Lessons, Skills and Advice",{"slug":167,"label":168},"last-words","Last Words",{"title":77,"description":126},"activists\u002Folive-bryanton\u002Findex","For over 25 years Olive Bryanton's name has been synonymous with consistent and informed advocacy for senior citizens, and especially the development of new services and ideas for better social policies; but younger generations also command attention because of her belief in better inter-generational understandings.","N5pfiK3jFBOWQod581N3mM-eqeyqvYu1bw-gZg17m_k",1789062652025]