MISSION

VietRISE advances social justice and builds power with working-class Vietnamese and immigrant communities in Orange County. We build leadership and create systemic change through organizing, narrative change, cultural empowerment, and civic engagement.

VISION

We envision an Orange County that is home to a thriving movement of Vietnamese people who are culturally empowered and work in solidarity with others for social and economic justice, ensuring that every individual is free from systemic injustice and the threat of displacement, and can lead fulfilling and meaningful lives.

ABOUT

Orange County is home to the largest population of Vietnamese people outside of Viet Nam with a total of over 200,000 people, which is 10% of the overall Vietnamese population in the United States. Little Saigon, OC is the oldest and largest Vietnamese ethnic enclave in the U.S. and is home to Vietnamese refugees and families who migrated to the U.S. after 1975, being one of the first areas where Vietnamese refugees settled. Because of its population size and historical significance to the Vietnamese community, what happens here in the realm of politics, business, and culture often sends ripple effects of change across Vietnamese and AAPI communities across the country.

Founded in 2018, VietRISE is a community organizing, advocacy, and movement building organization based in Orange County, CA. We organize Vietnamese people in Orange County to become activists, advocates, organizers, and leaders for systems change and social justice within the county’s schools, institutions, and governance. Our work focuses on advancing immigrant and housing justice through strategic policy and advocacy campaigns, building youth power and leadership through youth organizing and leadership development programs, making government more accessible to our community through civic engagement, empowering our community through cultural programming, and providing direct support to the most impacted people in our community through immigration and housing support services.

HISTORY

In 2018, VietRISE was founded with the mission to empower Orange County’s working class Vietnamese community by providing a central platform for community organizing, civic engagement, and social and cultural transformation deeply rooted in the principles of social justice. VietRISE’s first efforts toward movement building in the Vietnamese immigrant community occurred during the local movement to Defend Sanctuary in OC, in which our organization played a pivotal role in defending CA’s sanctuary law, the VALUES Act, against anti-immigrant lawmakers and white supremacist groups. Since then, VietRISE has continued to strengthen local community power by developing the leadership of youth and second-generation Vietnamese Americans, empowering them to serve as activists, advocates, organizers, and leaders dedicated to driving systemic change and advancing social justice within the county’s educational institutions and governance structures.

VietRISE is fiscally sponsored by Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.