Cents of Community

​Team Lead: ​Lucia Huang
Team member: Cara Li, Lily Chen

Project Abstract:

Part 1: Exploitation
With the influx and advancement of technology, scammers are making it more and more difficult to stray away from their scams, and consequently, financial fraud is on the rise in America. New tactics using artificial intelligence and impersonation have surfaced, and the technology gap amongst senior citizens makes their group a target. According to the FBI’s IC3, in 2024, adults ages 60 and over lost over 4.8 billion dollars due to scams, averaging around $83,000 for each individual. This hole in financial fraud identification for senior citizens is truly evident, and must be acted upon immediately. Therefore, our project, Cents of Community, targets the financial fraud prevention for the elderly Asian-American Pacific Islanders. Founded by three passionate students at Canyon Crest Academy, we believe in empowering our community by making sure elders are able to properly identify scams and make informed financial decisions. Through our workshops for elders and surveys, we aim to identify and provide elders with the knowledge they need to recognize scams and prevent significant money losses.

Part 2:Preparation
Thus far, our project, Cents of Community, has gone smoothly and according to plan. We began and concluded our initial research. This research allowed us to understand the severity of this problem, as well as identify the most common issues which we would be able to address in our survey. Then, we spent weeks crafting a survey to release to our audience. This included a Google Form with questions that informed us on the gaps for financial education and specifics on which areas needed the most help. Our survey helped us get a better grasp of how we should approach this issue. After finalizing our survey, we booked a seminar room at the Carmel Valley Public Library for our first workshop on the 26th of July. We pushed this survey out, as well as our workshop dates and information, and so far have received nearly 20 RSVPs. Additionally, we outreached to our community by posting flyers and contacting/visiting several retirement homes. Our preparation for our workshop has begun, where we will continue to research and finalize our lesson.

Part 3:Impact
This summer, we aimed to help elders in our community overcome a huge struggle: financial safety. With so many lives impacted on the daily from cases of financial fraud and scams, we made our ultimate goal helping get one step closer to financial safety. We began by conducting research for identifying the problem, noticing the extreme gap in financial knowledge. Over the course of a few weeks, we created a survey for individuals, particularly elders, to see their financial knowledge. With over 20 responses, we used this information to begin our education initiative. We reached out to several senior communities, reaching nearly 700 people through our outreach, as well as visiting numerous senior homes to contact them to see in which ways we could assist. We held one financial workshop on July 26th, where we had many attendees. This workshop, held at the Carmel Valley Public Library, allowed for us to teach financial safety and education to elders to prevent major impacts. This workshop included interactive games, a slideshow, and input from our financial advisor. Overall, our project helped bridge the gap of financial education, even at a small perspective, and ultimately helped many elders with financial fraud.