Falls Church has hired its first outreach specialist for the city’s Vietnamese communities.
Following city leaders’ promises to improve engagement with Vietnamese-American residents and businesses, Le Nguyen, a veteran journalist with local ties, started work on July 10.
He told City Council members that he hopes to serve as “a bridge between the city of Falls Church and the Vietnamese communities.”
“I’m still in the process of learning and getting up to speed,” Nguyen said at a Council meeting on Tuesday.
For now, the post is limited in scope. Nguyen will work 10 hours a week for the next six months before matters are re-evaluated.
Despite the limits, city officials said the impact could be significant.
“He is meeting with every department head and community group to get off and running,” said Cindy Mester, Falls Church director of community relations and legislative affairs.
In terms of a plan for moving ahead, “we’re looking forward to getting it kicked off,” Mester said.
Nguyen is a native of Vietnam who previously lived in Falls Church for three years.
“I believe I can tap into my heritage” to support residents as well as businesses in the Eden Center and elsewhere in the 2.2-square-mile community, he told Council members.
Establishing a city liaison with the Vietnamese-American community has been a goal of the Viet Place Collective advocacy group.
“This has been a long-awaited addition to the city,” City Council member Debora Schantz-Hiscott said at the meeting.
Earlier this year, Council members and other city leaders participated in an honorary street renaming, as the portion of Wilson Blvd in front of the Eden Center became “Saigon Blvd” to honor the former capital of South Vietnam.
The Eden Center became a haven for the Vietnamese-American community beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, as many businesses run by immigrants moved west from Clarendon owing to higher rents after Metro service arrived.
