Intergenerational Summit Aims to Deepen Conversation on Aging

The lead-up to the White House Conference on Aging continues with an ambitious live event, webcast and online discussion Thursday, May 28.

Billed as an "Intergenerational Summit on Aging," the event will be based in Philadelphia, Pa. and take place in multiple online and offline locations  intended to engage participants of all ages.

The event and related discussions titled "Deepening the Conversation on Aging," are sponsored by Kendal, a not-for-profit provider of retirement communities and services, and hosted by public television station WHYY-TV of Philadelphia.

Adhering to the discussion framework of the White House conference, the Intergenerational Summit will address four topics: Healthy Aging, Retirement Security, Longterm Services and Supports and Elder Justice. The event begins online at 9:30 am EDT and runs until 3:30 pm.

The main event will be a panel discussion at WHYY-TV studios, moderated by Bill Benson, managing principal of Health Care ABCs.  Check the website for a full list of presenters.

At the same time, participants will be watching and joining the discussion from four sites near Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; New York City and Washington, DC.  Organizers have invited local high school and college students as well as residents of nearby Kendal retirement communities and their families to join these events.

“This bringing together of the generations is a singular initiative that we believe will provide compelling insights, and become a unique part of the emerging narrative and findings of the 2015 White House Conference on Aging,” says John Diffey, Kendal President and CEO. “Our goal for these conversations is to deepen the level of conversation around issues of aging related to leaving a legacy and finding meaning in the later years.”

During the live event, participants will break out into discussion groups tackling each of the four main topics through four concurrent online chats.

Editors for Next Avenue, a media sponsor for the event, will moderate two of the chats on Healthy Aging and Retirement Security.  To join the conversation online, participants must register at the event website. (There is no charge to join.) People can also join the discussion via Twitter at #Aging Summit.

The webcast and discussions will be recorded and added to the voluminous material that the 2015 White House Conference on Aging is compiling for final policy recommendations to be delivered to Congress and the Obama Administration later this year.  The recorded webcast will be available sometime after the event on NextAvenue.org.

Although the Intergenerational Summit is not an official program of the White House Conference on Aging. the conference's Executive Director Nora Super has embraced the effort and recorded a special welcome for participants.

"Please join in this exchange." Super says. "The results of these conversations will help inform the upcoming Conference on Aging in July, and we need everyone’s voices to be heard.”