Press release

What kind of home will be your home in later life? How will it support your needs – physical, social, spiritual, financial – as you age? How will you get from here to there? By accident or design? These are some of the questions that will be addressed on Saturday, September 29, 2012, from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, at the Reuter Center at UNC-Asheville, when the Buncombe County Culture Change in Aging Network (BC-CAN) presents “Envisioning Home: Creating New Models of Home & Community in Later Life.” The event features keynote speaker Dene (Geraldine) Peterson, founder and developer of ElderSpirit, a mixed- income co-housing community in Abingdon VA designed to foster mutual support and later life spirituality.

With 75 million baby boomers on the verge of retirement, and an average of 10,000 people turning 65 every day for the next 20 years, we can anticipate many changes ahead: a strain on our current systems, a reaction against institutional care, the emergence of new models of aging, and other effects we can't yet name. How this large and influential generation defines aging, and the home that goes with it, is likely to have a profound effect on the society as a whole.

The September 29 forum is the first public effort in Buncombe County to begin a dialog around these issues at the community level. It is intended for adult children of aging parents, people living in or nearing retirement, elder care providers, and retirees wanting to be at home in their later years. Through panel discussions and small group sessions, the forum will explore both personal and cultural beliefs about what makes a home a home, and will examine some of the current and emerging options for creating home in later life, such as co-housing, intentional communities, naturally occurring retirement communities, 'concierge care,' and others.

“Envisioning Home” is co-sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of UNC-Asheville (formerly the NC Center for Creative Retirement) and the Land-of-Sky Regional Council.

Cost for the forum is $20, which includes lunch. To register, call Brenda Delacruz at Land-of-Sky Regional Council, at 828-251-6622, or email HYPERLINK "mailto:Brenda@landofsky.org" Brenda@landofsky.org, by September 26.

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The Buncombe County Culture Change in Aging Network (BC-CAN) is an unaffiliated 'think-tank' committee comprised of individuals interested in changing how we create home in later life. Its members include nonprofit leaders, gerontologists, elder care providers, an elder care attorney, long-term-care ombudsmen, a co-housing advocate, and adult children of aging parents.