Former vice president to moderate Family Re-Union 10

Gore

Former Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore will moderate Family Re-Union 10, an annual conference that addresses major policy issues affecting families, Nov. 19 at Vanderbilt.

This will be the 10th year that Family Re-Union has invited families, academic experts, and community, government, foundation and religious leaders from across the country to discuss new programs and policies that address the needs of children and parents. This year's conference, which will be held in Langford Auditorium, will look back at the progress made as a result of past conferences and forward to a new vision for meeting the needs of families.

"Family Re-Union is a national conversation about issues that matter most to all of us as parents," said Al Gore, who has moderated the conference since he was a U.S. senator. "We know that we have so much to learn about the programs and policies that work the best. This year more than ever before we need to focus on what makes our country, our families and our communities strong."

"We are especially interested in focusing on young people," said Tipper Gore. "We need to make sure that they have every opportunity to create strong families of their own and to build the communities of the future."

The conference is sponsored by the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt's Institute of Public Policy Studies, and the Children, Youth & Family Consortium at the University of Minnesota.

"This conference will give us a chance to check with past participants to see what progress has been made, what frustrations they faced and what steps still need to be taken," said Andy Shookhoff, associate director of Vanderbilt's Child and Family Policy Center.

"Since the attack on America, it has become even more imperative that we find enduring ways to strengthen our families, particularly during these troubling times," said Martha Farrell Erickson, director of the Children, Youth & Family Consortium at the University of Minnesota.

"Every year Tipper and I look forward to the chance to talk with families and to those who have made a difference in their lives," Gore said. "Tipper and I are grateful to the sponsors for their devotion to this on-going family policy initiative. We are all committed to letting families shape the policies that affect their daily lives."

The Gore's association with Vanderbilt is longstanding. Tipper is an alumna of Peabody College, and Al attended the Graduate School and Vanderbilt Law School prior to pursuing his first congressional seat in 1976. Al's mother, Pauline, was the 10th woman to graduate from the Vanderbilt Law School, and his sister Nancy Gore Hunger is a graduate from the College of Arts and Science.

The former vice president and Tipper Gore will moderate panel discussions starting at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 4 p.m. In the afternoon, there will be 10 breakout sessions designed to get updates on topics discussed at past conferences, including family and work, and the role of men in children's lives. People are invited from all over the country, and typically about 1,000 attend the annual event.