Dr. Pruett’s presentations continue at the AGHE Conference in Miami. Yesterday, Dr. Pruett, Dr. Lipps, and Dr. Macaluso presented a poster session titled, Six Generation Town Hall Meeting: Identifying Policy Issues While Improving Intergenerational Attitudes. See the photo and description below. Click on the photo to see a larger version.
Six Generation Town Hall Meeting: Identifying Policy Issues While Improving Intergenerational Attitudes
Charlie Pruett, PhD, Suzanne Macaluso, Alan J. Lipps
Friday, March 10, 2017; 9:30AM-12:30PM
Abstract Body:
Gerontology educators, aging network professionals, and political advocates are looking for opportunities to both identify policy issues as well as educate a new generation of professionals in aging. Sociologist have learned that bringing together individuals from different cultural groups, including different age cohorts, can improve social attitudes. This presentation will discuss the development, offering, and outcomes of an intergenerational town hall meeting held on a university campus in a city of 110,000 people in West Texas. The goal of the town hall meeting was to identify issues related to aging as well as bring university students into contact with proactive older adults. The event was organized by university faculty, members of the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature, the local Area Agency on Aging, and local service providers in the aging network. Three hundred individuals participated in the one day event which included 100 university students and 200 senior adults representing six generations. Attendees were divided into groups of eight. University students were seated with older adults at each table. Participants spent an hour discussing issues facing aging individuals of the local community. University students recorded the table discussion and specific issues at each table. Students then stood in the assembly to report the findings of each table. A written summary of the event was prepared by students and submitted to representatives of the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature who are presently developing platforms to be submit to Texas congressional representatives. Students expressed positive change in attitudes toward older adults. These attitudes and identified policies will be addressed in this presentation.
Objective 1: Those attending this presentation will gain insight into the development of an intergenerational policy development event.
Objective 2: Attendees will learn a creative methods of serving the community while expanding gerontological knowledge within future professional in aging.
Objective 3: Attendees will understand personal perspectives of university students and how their attitudes toward older adults were improved by interacting toward a unified
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