About Us
Little Saigon San Diego’s mission is to uplift the Vietnamese community by cultivating a sense of belonging, strengthening individual and community capacity, and empowering self-sufficiency.
We carry our mission into action through four areas of work: Infrastructure Revitalization, Community Service, Culture & Arts Programs, and Festivals & Events. We improve and create community spaces where people can see themselves and their stories reflected; provide translation and interpretation services to help bridge language, cultural, digital, and other barriers that may prevent people from accessing opportunities and essential resources; create opportunities for people to learn, participate, and contribute; and bring generations together to experience, practice, share, and carry culture across time.
At Little Saigon San Diego, we believe that achieving social equity and racial equality begins with strong individuals. Strong individuals are the foundation of strong communities, and strong communities contribute to a stronger society. We also believe that compassion, empathy, and lovingkindness are the glue that holds a strong community together and sustains it across generations.
Infrastructure Revitalization
Community Service
Culture & Arts Programs
Festival & Events
Infrastructure Revitalization
On June 4, 2013, the San Diego City Council unanimously passed a resolution officially designating the stretch of El Cajon Boulevard between Highland and Euclid Avenues as the Little Saigon Cultural and Commercial District.
Our long-term vision is to transform these six blocks into an open-air museum where the culture, history, and identity of the Vietnamese community are reflected throughout the district. Through public art, cultural elements, community spaces, and activities, we want visitors to be able to see, hear, touch, taste, and engage with the Vietnamese experience as they move through the neighborhood.
Our Little Saigon Revitalization Initiative brings this vision to life one project at a time by transforming sidewalks, streets, and other public spaces into places where people can gather, connect, and see their culture and stories reflected in the community around them.
The Boat People Garden is one of these projects, created with proceeds from our Lunar New Year Festivals. Our continuing revitalization efforts include developing additional public spaces and incorporating arts and cultural elements throughout the district.
Community Service
We help bridge the gap between vulnerable and underserved seniors and families and the programs, services, and resources available to them, particularly for those facing barriers to communication.
Language is not always the only barrier. Limited English proficiency, digital literacy, cultural differences, and unfamiliarity with systems can prevent people from accessing services and opportunities that could benefit them. We provide translation and interpretation services, practical assistance, and guidance to help individuals better understand and navigate these systems.
Our goal goes beyond helping someone address an immediate need. Whenever possible, we help individuals build the knowledge, confidence, and capacity to navigate these systems, advocate for themselves, and become increasingly self-sufficient, economically independent, and engaged in their community.
Cultural Events and Festivals
Culture & Arts Programs
We believe culture lives through the people who experience it, practice it, share it, and carry it forward.
Our Culture & Arts Programs create opportunities to learn, practice, and share Vietnamese cultural heritage through music, traditional instruments, dance, arts, customs, stories, food, and other cultural practices. Some traditions can be taught through words, while others are understood through experience—the sounds, tastes, movements, memories, and spiritual values that connect people to their heritage.
By creating opportunities for generations to learn from one another, we help carry culture across time. Traditions may evolve as they pass from one generation to the next, but the connections, experiences, and values behind them continue.
We also create opportunities for local artists and cultural practitioners to share their talents, develop their capacity, and connect with broader audiences.
Festivals & Events
We believe there would be less misunderstanding in the world if people had more opportunities to understand one another, learn about different cultural values and heritage, and appreciate individual differences.
Our cultural festivals and events invite people of all ages and backgrounds to taste, see, hear, touch, smell, and experience Vietnamese culture firsthand. Through food, music, performances, traditions, arts, games, and hands-on activities, cultural learning takes place naturally within the fun and welcoming environment of a celebration.
These shared experiences create opportunities for people who may come from very different backgrounds to meet, participate, and learn from one another. By increasing understanding and appreciation of our differences, we hope to cultivate greater compassion, empathy, and lovingkindness toward one another.
Our festivals also provide a platform for local artists, performers, community groups, and individuals who may otherwise have limited opportunities to share their talents, culture, stories, and creative expression with the broader community.
Everyone is welcome.
SD Lunar New Year Festival
January - February
San Diego Lantern Festival
September - October
Music & Poetry Night
July
Black April Commemoration
April 30th
Our History
Little Saigon San Diego Foundation was incorporated on November 20, 2008, with the purpose of preserving and celebrating the rich Vietnamese cultural heritage that contributes to making San Diego unique, vibrant, and resilient. From the beginning, our work has taken many forms—from cultural events and festivals to district branding, community development, and economic revitalization—all with the goal of strengthening cultural equity, belonging, and community well-being.
On June 4, 2013, the San Diego City Council unanimously passed a resolution officially designating the stretch of El Cajon Boulevard between Highland and Euclid Avenues as the Little Saigon Cultural and Commercial District. This milestone gave the Vietnamese community a formally recognized place within San Diego where its history, culture, and identity could be seen and experienced.
During our first decade, from 2009 through 2018, the district underwent significant changes. Custom-built trash cans helped create a cleaner environment, cultural branding and displays made Vietnamese identity more visible, and a growing collection of community improvements helped create a more welcoming district.
As we entered our second decade, our work expanded through the Little Saigon Revitalization Initiative. We began looking beyond traditional beautification toward activating empty and underutilized spaces, creating public gathering places, bringing more public art into the district, and transforming intangible cultural heritage into experiences that people can see, hear, touch, smell, taste, and participate in.
Today, that work continues with a broader purpose: to create a Little Saigon where culture is not only remembered, but lived, experienced, shared, and carried across time.
Vietnam War Memorial Monument
2019
Custom-built trashcans
2019
Freeway Landmark Signs
2018
Boat People Garden
2027
Building a Sustainable Future
At the heart of Little Saigon lies a simple philosophy:
We are one and many, but not two.
Like a single grain of sand in a vast desert, every individual is unique. Each person has their own hopes, choices, rights, responsibilities, and accountability. Every life deserves dignity, and every individual should have the freedom to shape their own path.
Yet no grain of sand exists entirely alone. Together, countless grains form the landscape itself.
The same is true of people.
The moment we interact with one another, another dimension naturally emerges. We form families, friendships, neighborhoods, organizations, and communities. With these relationships come trust, cooperation, shared responsibilities, mutual obligations, and social agreements that allow us to live together.
Some philosophies focus primarily on the individual. Others place greater emphasis on society. We see these not as competing ideas, but as two perspectives of the same reality.
Like a wave rising from the sea, each of us has our own identity, our own movement, and our own direction. Yet every wave is also the ocean. To understand one without the other is to see only half the picture.
We envision a future where the Vietnamese community has a permanent place to gather, learn, celebrate, and support one another.
Our first long-term goal is to establish a Vietnamese Community Center that provides a permanent home for our current and future programs. Today, many of our activities rely on rented or borrowed venues throughout the community. While this allows us to bring programs directly to residents across different neighborhoods, it also creates ongoing rental costs and limits how we design and expand our services. A dedicated community center would provide a stable home where resources can be invested directly into strengthening programs, expanding services, and creating new opportunities for future generations.
As our community continues to grow, we envision building upon that foundation by creating an independent living community for Vietnamese older adults, where they can age with dignity, independence, and a deep sense of belonging.
More than an independent living facility, we envision a secure Vietnamese cultural village where language, traditions, food, relationships, and everyday life continue to flourish.
More than an independent living facility, we envision a secure Vietnamese cultural village where language, traditions, food, relationships, and everyday life continue to flourish.
More than an independent living facility, we envision a secure Vietnamese cultural village where language, traditions, food, relationships, and everyday life continue to flourish.
Inspired by the idea that many people naturally long to return to their hometown as they grow older, our vision is to create a village where residents can continue living independently in a culturally familiar environment while enjoying the support of a close-knit community.
Each resident lives in a small cabin-style home with their own front yard, vegetable garden, fruit trees, and space to care for small livestock such as chickens or ducks. These are more than elements. They provide purpose, encourage daily physical activity, promote healthier living, and create natural opportunities for neighbors to interact and support one another. Caring for a garden and tending to animals becomes part of everyday life, giving residents a reason to step outside each morning and remain engaged with the world around them.
At the heart of the village, a shared pond and irrigation system provides water for the gardens while creating a central gathering place for the community. Although each resident enjoys the independence and privacy of their own home, shared services such as a communal dining hall, transportation, maintenance, and security provide the support needed to live independently with confidence. Daily shared meals naturally bring neighbors together while allowing the community to notice when someone may need assistance.
Every element of the village is intentionally designed to encourage healthy living, preserve Vietnamese culture, strengthen relationships, and cultivate a deep sense of belonging.
This is the vision we are working toward as we build a sustainable future for Little Saigon.
The community we wish to cultivate.
At Little Saigon, we believe uplifting the community begins by cultivating a deep sense of belonging.
Belonging is more than feeling welcomed, accepted, or invited into a community. While these acts reflect kindness, they also imply that belonging is something granted by others.
We believe belonging begins when individuals recognize themselves as rightful members of the community. As members of the same community, we share not only the freedoms and opportunities that come with belonging, but also the collective responsibility of shaping the future we all share.
To cultivate this sense of belonging, our work focuses on strengthening capacity and empowering self-sufficiency. We help bridge the barriers that often prevent people from participating fully in community life, including language differences, cultural unfamiliarity, and the complexity of navigating public systems and services. By expanding knowledge, strengthening relationships, improving access to resources, and creating meaningful opportunities, we help individuals build the confidence and ability to navigate life with greater independence.
Like a wave rising from the ocean, the growth of an individual and the growth of the community cannot be separated. As individuals become stronger, so too does the community. As the community becomes stronger, so too do the individuals within it. We are one and many, but not two.
With a stronger foundation comes greater confidence. With greater confidence comes a deeper willingness to contribute, support others, and share in the collective responsibility of the community. Belonging is no longer something people seek from others. It becomes something they express through the way they live alongside one another.
We envision a community where every individual recognizes that they are not merely participants in community life, but rightful members of it.
A community where language, culture, and public systems no longer create barriers to opportunity.
A community where people have the confidence and ability to shape their own future while willingly sharing in the collective responsibility of shaping the future we all share.
A community where belonging is not something granted, but something lived.
This is the community we wish to cultivate.
"This is our north star. If one day you see us walking in a different direction, please call us out."
Because Little Saigon is expanding… into the other side of living.
Why did marigolds become the flowers that bridge life and death?
Millions of marigold garlands are used each year during Diwali celebrations in India. In Mexico, marigolds are believed to guide departed souls home during the Day of the Dead. Thai Buddhist temples use marigolds as daily offerings.
I thought only my grandma used them, but I guess we Vietnamese also recognize their religious significance. Even the ancient Aztecs used marigolds in their rituals
Across different cultures, continents, and centuries, these golden flowers have somehow taken on a sacred role.
I wonder if the marigolds ever agreed to this responsibility, or if they have been silently protesting all along.
The Legacy We Carry Forward
We honor those who came before us by carrying forward their voices, contributions, work, and dreams. Though they may no longer be here to speak for themselves, what they built, hoped for, and contributed continues through the work we do today and what we leave for generations to come.
Philip Phan
2026
Event Operations Coordinator
Ron Luong
2020
Vice President of External Affairs
Đào Nguyên Dạ Thảo
2026
Boat People Sculpture Artist
Tai Le
2022
Cultural Village Member
Ngô Trọng Đằng-Giao
2025
Founding Lead Reporter, I Was There Project
Hau Lam
2017
Cultural Village Member
Dr. Paul Trần Giác Hoa
2022
Board Member
Sinh Pham
Cultural Village Member