ICAA’s Changing the Way We Age® Campaign invites organizations, individuals to help overturn ageist stereotypes

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ICAA Champions program launches

VANCOUVER--A ground-breaking movement aimed at shifting society’s perceptions of aging is inviting organizations, communities, professionals and members of the public to help overturn ageist stereotypes and foster new perceptions of aging. ICAA’s Changing the Way We Age®” Campaign (www.changingthewayweage.com), spearheaded by the International Council on Active Aging, “has already begun to engage organizations and individuals in creating a new vision of aging in society,” says ICAA CEO Colin Milner.

ICAA Champions inspire change

Many of the hundreds of people who tuned into the webcast that launched the campaign have volunteered to help shift society’s perceptions of aging by joining the ICAA Champions program. Using materials posted in the ICAA Champions toolkit, champions will inform the media, businesses, families and individuals about the untapped human potential associated with aging, and help them understand that tapping into this potential could help us address many of society’s challenges and opportunities. ICAA is inviting organizations, professionals and individuals who will demonstrate that rethinking the way we age will help everyone age better. A nomination form is posted on the website.

Fitness and wellness expert Kathy Smith, who heads up the ICAA Champions program, says that at age 60, “one of the things I’m passionate about is finding ways to inspire people to get moving and keep moving. I believe this is the best time of our lives right now, if we have the vitality, the energy and the health to take advantage of it—and to ensure that we do, we have to keep each other motivated to live a healthy, active lifestyle. I’m here with the ICAA Champions program to show that it can be done.”

One of the aims of the ICAA Champions is charging individuals to earn their Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA). ICAA Champions will also participate in support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, which provides opportunities for intergenerational events that build relationships between youth and older people. For more information on the PALA, visit: www.millionpalachallenge.org.

According to Milner, “ICAA has been changing the way we age for the past 10 years, as this is ICAA’s mission. The new campaign represents an expansion of that mission, with a program that clearly resonates with adults over age 50 and the organizations and professionals who serve them.”

About the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA)
The International Council on Active Aging® is the professional association that leads, connects and defines the active-aging industry. ICAA supports professionals who develop wellness facilities, programs and services for adults over 50. The association is focused on active aging—an approach to aging that helps older adults live as fully as possible within all dimensions of wellness (i.e., physical, social, environmental, vocational, intellectual, emotional and spiritual)—and provides its members with education, information, resources and tools.

As an active-aging educator and advocate, ICAA has advised numerous organizations and governmental bodies, including the US Administration on Aging, the National Institute on Aging (one of the US National Institutes of Health), the US Department of Health and Human Services, Canada’s Special Senate Committee on Aging, European Commission, and the British Columbia ministries of Health, and Healthy Living and Sport.

For interviews please contact:

Contact: Colin Milner, CEO, ICAA
Toll-free: 1-866-335-9777 (North America)
Telephone: 604-734-4466; cell: 604-763-4595
colinmilner@icaa.cc

Contact: Marilynn Larkin
Communications Director, ICAA
212-315-3301
mlarkin@icaa.cc