Santa Barbara County 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, former 1st District Supervisor Naomi Schwartz and Adriana Mendoza, associate state director for AARP California on the Central Coast, are chairing “The Symposium on Aging: A Call for Collaboration.”

The symposium, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 3 at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort, will address the needs of the aging population in Santa Barbara. The effects of aging on health, housing, transportation, independent living and financial security are among the agenda items.

Carbajal was elected to the county Board of Supervisors in March 2004, re-elected in 2008 and now is board chairman.

Schwartz, was elected to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors in 1992, and represented the 1st District for 12 years. She is a former educator and chairwoman of the California Coastal Commission. She serves as executive director of The Gildea Foundation, a private philanthropy serving needs of low-income seniors in Santa Barbara. Additionally, she is a founding board member of the Courthouse Legacy Foundation and serves on the Dean’s Council of the Bren School at UCSB.

Mendoza oversees operations in six counties with more than 240,000 AARP members. Previously, she served as Health Services Associate for AltaMed Health Services Corporation, executive assistant/field representative for Rep. Esteban Torres and also worked as a social worker intern at Huntington Memorial Hospital’s Senior Care Network in Pasadena.

The three co-chairs will guide the symposium to reaching its goals, which are to raise awareness in the community at large to the needs of our aging population; broaden participants’ knowledge of the needs of seniors in our community; foster collaboration among nonprofit providers, public agencies, and the philanthropic community in meeting those needs; identify gaps in senior services and funding sources; and make recommendations for prioritizing needs and moving from dialogue to action.

Sponsors are AARP, Santa Barbara County and The Gildea Foundation. Co-sponsors are Area Agency on Aging, the city of Santa Barbara, Garden Court Inc., Hutton Foundation, Family Service Agency of Santa Barbara, James S. Bower Foundation, Sara Miller McCune, Southern California Edison, United Way and the Wood-Claeyssens Foundation.

For more information, e-mail symposiumaging@gmail.com or leave a voice message at 805.681.4452.