• Introductory remarks by City of Detroit officials
• Free health screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and cholesterol
• Free educational counseling (nutrition, prescription drug abuse, and HIV)
• Exercise with the highly acclaimed "Fired-Up Couch Potatoes"
• Music by "The Idlewild Revue of 1962" by Valaida Benson
• Mr. Chester Higgins, Jr. of "Elder Grace & the Nobility of Aging"
• Humor for Health
• Refreshments

This event announces the Participant Research Resource Pool campaign by the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR) Community Core to help create a Healthier Detroit. The Healthier Black Elders Center is being funded for another five years by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The program is directed by Dr. James S. Jackson (UM) and Dr. Peter Lichtenberg (WSU). It is housed in the Institute of Gerontology located at 87 East Ferry Street.

The MCUAAAR Program is a collaboration between Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. Dr. Mark Luborsky of Wayne State University serves as director of the Community Core and Drs. Olivia Washington and Rodney Clark also of Wayne State University, serve as assistant directors. University of Michigan faculty are Drs. Mary Haan and Hector Gonzalez.

The HBE Center has given 59 health promotion presentations to more than 1,700 African American seniors in 31 organizations and involved over 2,500 African Americans in research over the last five years.

MCUAAAR is one of several national Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMARs) funded. The goal of the Michigan center is to reduce minority's health status differentials by focusing research on health-promotion, disease, and disability prevention.

For more information about the Center and its Kick-Off celebration contact Wynter Wyrick at (313) 577-2297. For more information about the Institute of Gerontology and its programs, visit the Institute of Gerontology Web page or call (313) 577-2297.