Amanda Lee, CEO and Co-Founder, Happy50Plus
In early 2018, I was thinking, I cannot believe I already turned 50! Having been in the United States since the 1990’s when I came to attend graduate school at Boston University and then stayed to work and have a family, I felt I have assimilated well into American society. However, I observed my parents, who were staying with me at that time, while they were very healthy physically and driving to visit friends frequently, their limited proficiency in English meant they missed out on a lot information and resources. That was the genesis of my idea to start Happy50Plus—a desire to help 50+ Chinse/AAPI Americans to age more successfully with timely and accurate in-language information and resources.
I was fortunate to have many good friends working in the aging field who taught me about the issues and guided me through the aging landscape to help to start this Happy50plus venture. In 2018-2019, my team and I hosted six very successful in-person events, highlighting topics ranging from caregiving, dementia awareness, Medicare, to farmer’s markets, and dating and relationship. We were able to attract between 300-700 people to attend each event (depending on the venue).
In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, we pivoted all our activities to virtual, and put all of our resources and focus on the health and well-being for our members, their families, and the broader 50-year-and-older communities, in particular the Chinese/AAPI American community.
During the COVID-19 stay-at-home period, many of the members of Happy50Plus became socially isolated and were feeling lonely and anxious. To help them to combat social isolation and promote brain health, Happy50Plus collaborated with AARP California, the Northern/Southern California Chinese Writers Association, World Journal News, and TVBS to collect over 60 stories and we shared the 22 best ones on World Journal News and Chinese-language social media.
Also in 2020, there were many rumors and a lot of misinformation about COVID-19. The Happy50plus team translated information into Chinese from trusted sources, such as AARP, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Los Angeles County Health Department to share with our members. We also helped 300 members to register and get vaccinated in April 2021. Our online programs have been extremely popular: We continue to provide exercise classes three times a week, in addition to ongoing classes on cooking, flower arrangement, and computer skills. Our regular virtual workshops on health-related topics always draw a high attendance.
During this past year, our efforts have driven an enormous volume of traffic to our website (www.happy50plus.org), and our membership and social media followers have grown exponentially. We were “discovered” by many older Chinese Americans throughout the United States, and our member base has expanded to New York, Nevada, Texas, and Illinois. Many of our members thanked us for keeping them active and informed during the stay-at-home period of time in 2020.
We attribute our growth to many factors, one of which is constantly providing engaging and relevant content that is of interest to the 50+ Chinese/AAPI Americans. Also important is being nimble to meet the changing needs of our older Chinese/AAPI communities quickly. We constantly shift our focus and resources to go where our members want to go.
While our focus and resources may evolve, we never forget that Happy50Plus is a social mission organization. Our role is to enhance quality of life for people 50+, especially the Chinese/AAPI Americans in the U.S. Through our efforts, many Chinese/AAPI Americans who are socially isolated and have limited English language proficiency identify Happy50Plus as a credible source of information.
In 2020, I was honored to receive the Trailblazer in Aging Award from the National Council on Aging (NCOA). Last year, we were also honored to receive a Healthy Community grant from City of Hope, Los Angeles. Happy50Plus has been recognized by Next Avenue, a prominent hub for news and information for people 50+, as “a social connector and information resource within the Asian American community.”
This year, Happy50plus is honored to be invited by NCOA to share our story, “Creating Equity in Engagement for Older Chinese/AAPI Americans at the Community Level” at the Age + Action 2021 Conference on June 7-10. Our panel presentation for this conference focuses on our work on health and racial equity. We shared our strategy, “The 5 Cs,” that helped us to grow to a 6,500+-member-strong organization in greater details.
The 5 Cs are:
- Community Presence: We will share the importance of providing timely and relevant information using multiple platforms.
- Creative Content: In addition to the content (health-related topics, caregiving, dementia awareness, housing…), Happy50Plus also provided creative workshops that are of interest to the 50+ Chinese/AAPI, such as RV and yurt camping, digital photography, virtual painting classes, electric vehicles, dating and relationships, farmer’s markets, etc.
- Consumer Experience: We will share how Happy50Plus has created a safe and empathic community, where people with similar experiences and background are able to share their concerns, questions, and joy via Chinese-language social media, on our Website or during our virtual programs.
- Cross-sector Collaboration: Happy50Plus has been able to work successfully with government agencies, academia, nonprofit organizations, and businesses well.
- Connectedness: Happy50Plus has always believed that our members have many of the answers to life, so we encourage peer-to-peer support to answer any questions and discuss challenges.
In addition to sharing the Happy50plus story and engagement strategies, our honored guest speakers on this panel also shared:
Lily Liu (Brand Storyteller, Liu Consultants): The power of storytelling: How to use storytelling as a tool to engage the older Chinese/AAPI Americans.
Susan Wang (Senior Advisor, AARP): How some monolingual and socially isolated older Chinese/AAPI Americans are affected by social determinants of health.
Dr. Fei Sun (Professor, School of Social Work at Michigan State University): A discussion about a new music therapy project on promoting brain health, in collaboration with AARP and the Global Council on Aging.
We invite you to watch our on-demand session “Creating Equity in Engagement for Older Chinese/AAPI Americans at the Community Level” on the NCOA Age + Aging conference session. We also invite you to partner with us, to further bridge the health, language, and equity gaps for older Chinese/AAPI Americans!