News
Washington, D.C. - Joel Reaser, NOWCC's Senior Vice President, participated in the historic 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) held December 11 to 14, 2005 in Washington, D.C. White House Conferences on Aging are decennial events designed to make recommendations to the President and the Congress on national aging policies for the future. The 2005 WHCoA is the fifth in the history of the United States and the first of the 21st Century.
Dr. Reaser joined approximately 1200 delegates from across the United States selected by Governors, Members of Congress, the National Congress of American Indians and the WHCoA Policy Committee to vote on up to 50 resolutions that they believe are the most important for current and future generations of seniors and develop implementation strategies that will produce results that will make a difference in the lives of future generations. Among those resolutions were Resolution 12, eliminating barriers to employment, ranked 12th, and Resolution 11, providing incentives to employers, ranked 14th.
The 2005 WHCoA has a legislative mandate to focus on the aging of today and tomorrow including 78 million baby boomers that will begin to turn 60 in January 2006. In convening the 2005 WHCoA, Policy Committee Chairman Dorcas R. Hardy encouraged the delegates to "envision the future" as they worked on how the resolutions they selected might be put into action, and to include actions that may be taken by business, industry, private and non-profit sectors as well as families, communities and individuals - and not solely Federal, state and local governments.
For nearly two years, the WHCoA has sought input from a wide array of stakeholders to develop the overarching agenda and plan for the WHCoA. Emerging issues were identified and refined through public input received from approximately 400 events involving 130,000 people across the nation as well as general comments received by the WHCoA. The Final Report from the 2005 WHCoA will be completed by June 2006.