DELAWARE CITIZENS COUNCIL ON AGING/
COMMISSION FOR THE AGING/
COUNCIL ON THE AGING
In 1959, Congress passed legislation providing for a White House Conference on Aging to be held in January 1961 to address the problems of the nation’s elderly, and to request that grant funds be made available to support said initiative. To share these funds and participate in that conference, the Delaware Legislature concurrently passed legislation that greatly expanded the mission of the existing Board of Trustees of the State Welfare Home and Hospital for the Chronically Ill at Smyrna.1
Under the auspices of the Board, the Legislature created a Division of the Aging (and a Director) and a Delaware Citizen’s Council on Aging. (Note: Delaware Laws citations refer to the latter group as both Council on Aging and Council for the Aging, sometimes changing within the same cite, but the two groups are synonymous and the preferred title used by the group in their minutes is Council on Aging.)2
The new Director of the Division of Aging was to be supervised by the Board and also act as liaison between the Board and the Citizens Council. The Director also served as an ex officio member of the council.3
A sufficient number of members, preferably representatives of agencies directly or indirectly concerned with the problems of the aged, was to be appointed by the Board to serve as a Delaware Citizens Council on Aging. The Council was charged with fostering the formation of local community councils and providing support to them, as well as being an advisory group to the Board itself.4
In 1965, the Delaware Citizens Council on Aging was dissolved, and created in its place was the Commission for Aging. The fifteen members were gubernatorially appointed from fields such as education, religion, labor, corrections, guidance, and health, with one member to be chosen by the group as its executive director.5
The Commission was charged with the following responsibilities:
DELAWARE CITIZENS COUNCIL ON AGING/
COMMISSION FOR THE AGING/
COUNCIL ON THE AGING
1 52 DL, ch. 74.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 55 DL, ch. 158.
6 Ibid.
7 57 DL, ch. 301.
8 59 DL, ch. 136.
9 60 DL, ch. 525.
jrf/March 11, 1988; March 23, 1988
jrf/revised (added and combined 1500_3.2); October 4, 1988
December 29, 1988
Related Topics: Delaware Citizens Council on Aging