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Contact | North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services |
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History of North Carolina 1993 – 2003 The North Carolina Senior Tar Heel Legislature was created by the North Carolina General Assembly with the passage of Senate Bill 479 in July of 1993 (G.S. 143B-181.55). Chief sponsor of the bill was Senator Beverly Perdue who currently serves as Lt. Governor of our state. The Senior Tar Heel Legislature was established to:
There is one delegate to the Senior Tar Heel Legislature from each of the 100 counties in the state. Most counties also have an alternate delegate. Delegates must be age 60 or older. The North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services provides staff support for the Senior Tar Heel Legislature in cooperation with the 17 Area Agencies on Aging who are responsible for conducting the selection of delegates and alternates. The first meeting of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature was held on October 26, 1993. After that meeting, an Operations/Procedures/Steering Committee composed of delegates from 12 counties was formed to devise a framework for the structure of the Senior Legislature. Following several months of deliberations, key recommendations coming from this Committee included the following:
Recommendations coming from the Operations/Procedures/Steering Committee were adopted by the delegates in early 1994 and the decisions made at that time have guided the Senior Tar Heel Legislature to this day. Issues Committees of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature are: Crime/Safety/Security, Enrichment Opportunities, General Legislation, Health, Long Term Care, and System/Service Access. All delegates are assigned to an Issues Committee. Standing Committees of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature are: Advocacy, Elections and Credentials, Finance, Public Relations, Resolutions, and Rules and By-laws. Since the inception of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature, delegates and alternates to the Senior Legislature have undertaken a variety of activities in their counties to help inform and educate older citizens on matters before the General Assembly and to hear from people regarding their needs. These have included community forums, informational booths at health fairs, and meetings where legislators have been invited to explain pending legislation. Many delegates and alternates give presentations each month to local groups and organizations while others write articles for local newspapers and appear on local radio programs. The October 2003 meeting marked the 32nd state level meeting of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature as a whole. Currently, the Senior Legislature meets three times a year, usually in Raleigh, to study issues, to hear from key resource persons and state officials, and to develop recommendations to present to the N.C. General Assembly. Meetings are held in March, June, and October. The Senior Legislature submits three to five priority recommendations to the General Assembly each legislative session. Since its inception, the Senior Legislature has made a total of 46 recommendations to the General Assembly. With few exceptions, the General Assembly has taken positive action, in some form or fashion, on these recommendations. Among the key actions that the General Assembly has taken on recommendations include the following:
In advocating for their priority recommendations, the Senior Tar Heel Legislature collaborates with groups such as the N.C. Coalition on Aging, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Aging, AARP, Friends of Residents in Long Term Care, Inc., and other senior advocacy groups to educate the public regarding issues. Delegates and alternates from many of the 100 counties, often with the assistance of Area Agencies on Aging, frequently hold dialogue sessions with members of the General Assembly about priority issues. Delegates and alternates also meet with members of the Senate and the House in their districts and at their offices in Raleigh to discuss Senior Legislature recommendations. Since its inception, over 500 older adults have served in the Senior Tar Heel Legislature as delegates or alternates. These have included persons in their early sixties to 93 years of age. Twenty-nine delegates and alternates have been a member of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature for ten years. A 501(c)3 charitable corporation, Friends
of N.C. Senior Tar Heel Legislature, Inc. (name later changed to Friends
of Senior Tar Heels, Inc.), was formed in 1995 to raise funds to further
the purposes of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature. Funds raised by Friends
have been used to provide scholarship assistance for delegates to attend
meetings, to support educational programs, and to help defray the expenses
of Senior Tar Heel Legislature statewide meetings. Last update - October 23, 2003 |
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