The New York Southern Area Aging Network and Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service’s Ravazzin Center on Aging will host a daylong conference on aging, “Preparing for the Elderboom: Strategies for Success through Workforce Development and Advocacy,” on Thursday, May 24, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the McNally Amphitheatre, Lowenstein Center, Lincoln Center campus.
Convened by Mae Carpenter, commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services, and Edwin Mendez-Santiago, commissioner of the New York City Department for the Aging, the conference will feature sessions by professionals in the aging care and service sector, educators and community leaders. Robyn Stone, executive director of the Institute for the Future of Aging Services, will deliver the keynote address. Other speakers and panelists include Michael Burgess, director of the New York State Office for the Aging; Frank Burns, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Administration on Aging; and Peter B. Vaughan, Ph.D., dean of the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.
The conference will explore ways to address the dire shortage of people in New York state’s workforce to care for the rapidly aging population. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that almost 2.2 million people age 60 and over live in the southern New York state, accounting for just over two-thirds of the state’s older population. The New York State Office for the Aging has projected that 25 percent of the working population will be at retirement age by 2012.
