In an effort to find solutions to the many challenges a rapidly growing aging population brings to the state and nation, Nevadans will have the opportunity to attend the 2005 Nevada Conference on Aging July 6 at UNLV's Moyer Student Union ballroom.
Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn and UNLV President Carol C. Harter will open the Las Vegas conference, an officially designated "Solutions Forum" of the White House Conference on Aging. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will deliver the program's keynote address. Registration opens at 9 a.m., with conference programs scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A sister conference will be held in Reno on July 7.
The Nevada conferences are designed to generate solutions and public policy recommendations on aging issues that can be carried by Nevada's delegates to the White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) in Washington, D.C. this December, and ultimately to the President and Congress.
The conference will include working group sessions focusing on six key WHCoA topic areas (financial planning, workplace issues, community issues, health, social engagement and marketplace issues), as well as presentations from senior service experts and others on solutions to many aging-related issues. Carl Eisdorfer, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Center on Aging and Special Assistant to the President of the University of Miami, Florida will be the afternoon keynote speaker. Participants will also have the opportunity to obtain information from a variety of senior service providers in the state.
Both the Las Vegas and Reno conferences are sponsored through a partnership between the Nevada Division for Aging Services; the Center on Aging at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and the Sanford Center for Aging at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Those interested in the field of aging, including senior organizations, senior service providers, community leaders and the general public, are invited to attend. There is no cost if participants pre-register by July 1. Registration is limited to 200 people in each location.
The national White House Conference on Aging meets only once each decade, making regional input from events like the Nevada conferences all the more critical to our country's senior agenda. The 2005 WHCoA theme is "The Booming Dynamics of Aging: From Awareness to Action," and will focus on the aging issues of today and tomorrow as the 78 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 begin turning 60 in 2006.
For participant registration and sponsor/vendor forms for both the Las Vegas and Reno events, call or email Chris Rust at the Sanford Center for Aging at (775) 784-4774, chrisj@unr.edu.
For information on the WHCoA, please visit <a href="http://www.whcoa.gov">www.whcoa.gov</a>.
***EDITOR'S NOTE*** Interviews with a variety of policymakers and program participants will be available at 9:30 AM in room 201-S of the Moyer Student Union. Members of the media are welcome to attend any of the day's sessions, including the 10 a.m. keynote session. A detailed schedule of events is attached.
