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Advancingsocial justice and buddingpower with working-class Vietnamese and <br />immigrant communities in Orange County. <br />VGarden Grove, CA 92843 I www.vietrise.ore general@vietrise.org I @vietriseoc <br />Attn: Mayor Vicente Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tem David Penaloza, Councilmember Thai <br />Viet Phan, Councilmember Jessie Lopez, Councilmember Phil Bacerra, Councilmember <br />Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, Councilmember Nelida Mendoza <br />Tuesday, June 1, 2021 <br />Santa Ana City Council <br />20 Civic Center Plaza <br />Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br />Re: VietRISE Organizational Public Comment - Agenda Item 429 <br />Dear Mayor Sarmiento and Santa Ana Council Members, <br />On behalf of VietRISE, we urge you to approve funding for a full-time Vietnamese <br />Community Liaison at the cost of $150,000 in the FY 2021-2022 budget. <br />VietRISE is a non-profit organization based in Orange County that works to advance social <br />justice and organize working class Vietnamese and immigrant communities in Orange County <br />through civic engagement. A large majority of the Vietnamese residents we work with live in <br />Santa Ana. Over the past three years, we have heard countless stories from Santa Ana's <br />Vietnamese residents who have expressed feeling like they have been neglected from city <br />politics and affairs and who often turn to other cities in the county for a sense of community and <br />government resources. One of the biggest barriers that residents have shared with us in regards to <br />accessing Santa Ana's city resources is not having materials readily translated in Vietnamese and <br />not having a city staff member they can comfortably speak to in their language. This has left <br />many Vietnamese residents feeling disenfranchised, ignored, and not part of the city of Santa <br />Ana. <br />Orange County is home to the largest number of Vietnamese people outside of Viet Nam, and <br />Santa Ana is home to more than 25,000 Vietnamese residents, according to Census data. Not <br />only is Santa Ana significant to Vietnamese people in terms of population, but it also has <br />historical and cultural significance for Vietnamese immigrants and refugees in the city and <br />beyond. The first supermarket owned by a Vietnamese resident after 1975 following the war in <br />Viet Nam and the mass refugee migration to the U.S. was established in Santa Ana. There are <br />countless Vietnamese businesses that still operate in Santa Ana and serve its residents, from <br />Page 1 <br />