Vietnamese Community Center Closing; Vietnamese Translator Starting at DC Dept. of Human Services

By Jenny Chen

When the Vietnamese Community Center in DC closed, many limited English proficient Vietnamese Americans in the District didn’t know where to turn to for help. The Mayor’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs (OAPIA) acted quickly by entering into a series of memorandum of understanding (MOUs) with various agencies to fill the gap left by the services offered at the Vietnamese Community Center. Most recently, OAPIA worked with the Department of Human Services (DHS) to hire a new bilingual community outreach specialist to provide direct human services to limited English proficient (LEP) and non-English proficient (NEP) Vietnamese American residents in the District.

OAPIA Director Soohyun “Julie” Koo said that many of the clients served at the Vietnamese Community Service Center were put in contact with OAPIA. “We were so overwhelmed with the services they needed,” Koo said.

Under this partnership Chau Ngo, the new OAPIA Community Outreach Specialist bilingual in English and Vietnamese, will be on-site every Wednesday from 8:15 am to 6:30 pm at the Department of Human Services – Taylor Street Service Center, 1207 Taylor St NW, Washington, DC 20002. Ngo will provide individual assistance to LEP and NEP Vietnamese American clients on DHS services.

In addition to Ngo, the OAPIA has hired Chinese language, Korean language, and an additional Vietnamese language community outreach coordinator.

“The Department of Human Services is pleased to offer this service for our customers. A language barrier should never prevent a District resident from receiving the services he or she may need. We are grateful for this partnership with the Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, and look forward to continued collaboration,” said DHS Director David Berns.