WESTCHESTER TAKES LEADING ROLE IN NATIONAL AGING POLICY

Making its most dramatic stride yet in bringing aging issues to the national forefront, Westchester County can take credit for helping to develop the top 10 resolutions recently selected at the 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) in Washington D.C. The recommendations will now go to the President and Congress to guide future policy decisions.

The county had held a series of mini-conferences over the past year to identify priority issues and then sent a delegation headed by Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services Commissioner Mae Carpenter to the D.C. conference to lobby for the changes. Carpenter was appointed a state delegate by U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Many of the resolutions voted on by the WHCoA delegates were identified during the Pre-White House Conferences on Aging – sponsored by the Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services and the Westchester Public/Private Partnership for Aging Services.

County Executive Andrew Spano said the Pre-White House conferences set the standard for aging policy.

“We started our baby boomer ‘preparedness plan’ over a year ago with the Pre-White House conferences,” Spano said. “The fact that our resolutions were not only accepted -- but made the top 10 -- at the White House Conference on Aging last week, clearly demonstrates that Westchester is a national model for senior services and a tremendous influence in shaping aging policy. I am proud of our contributions to this historic conference.” 

 The WHCoA – the fifth in the nation’s history – took place in Washington, D.C. from Dec.11-14. This historic decennial conference – attended by more than 2,000 people, representing fifty states and the US territories – is intended to chart the course for aging services, programs, trends and technology for the coming decade. The 1,200 delegates voted on the top 50 resolutions as the “preparedness plan” that will guide the U. S. in caring for 78 million baby boomers nationwide. A final conference report will be presented to the President and Congress by June 2006.

       The WHCoA resolutions were categorized by six policy areas, including “planning along the lifespan,” “our community,” “health and long-term living,” “civic and social engagement,” “technology and innovation in an emerging senior/boomer market place” and “cross cutting issues.” Out of the top 50 resolutions the following were selected as the top 10 based on the delegates’ votes: 

Westchester County conducted a series of Pre-White House Conferences on Aging. These conferences fostered dozens of recommendations that were sent to the national White House Conference Policy Committee in Washington D.C., as well as to the New York State and other counties. The White House Conference Policy Committee heard from thousands of delegates advocating the most important issues facing the largest group of seniors in human history - the baby boomers.

      “We spent the last 18-months preparing for this important conference,” Carpenter said. “I sincerely thank our Pre-White House Conference caucus members and sponsors for their hard work and dedication in developing our resolutions that clearly mirror a national frame of mind. Westchester County will continue to advocate and speak out on behalf of seniors to ensure that these resolutions become legislation.”