For 16 years, Kaye White has represented Dare County as the delegate to the Senior Tar Heel Legislature. Every year she has come to the Dare County Board of Commissioners to deliver a report.

She is currently the chair of the Legislature Committee, which puts together the resolutions to be considered by the Senior Tar Heel Legislature when it convenes in October. Those resolutions set the group’s priorities for advocacy before the North Carolina General Assembly.

For this past two years, the Senior Tar Heel Legislature has advocated for additional funding for senior centers, home and community care block grant and adult protective services. “None of our priorities received the additional funding requested,” wrote White in her prepared report to the Dare County Board of Commissioners.

At the June meeting of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature, a report was delivered about the All Ages, All Stages project launched in 2023. North Carolina is one of 10 states to participate in this plan for aging. Driving the project is transforming infrastructure and coordinating services for North Carolina’s aging population across multiple state agencies.

White said for the next couple of years, the All Ages, All Stages plan priorities are affording aging, optimizing health and wellbeing, strengthening communities for a lifetime through housing, adult protective services, supporting older adults and their families through home- and community-based services and family caregiver support.

White reported that North Carolina ranks as the ninth state in the United States for the 65-plus population. The report due next month is expected to demonstrate a commitment to building an age-friendly state.

Alternate delegate Sue Kelly reported on the March 2024 meeting of the Legislature.

At the last of her report, White tearfully announced that after 16 years of service she would be stepping down as delegate in January 2025, which is the end of her term. She is now the caregiver for her husband.

Kelly said “she has served her county well.”

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