Research

The Vietnamese American Research Institute (VARI) was officially launched by BPSOS at the Inaugural National Summit of Vietnamese American Leaders in Washington, DC on July 2, 2011.

Dr. Dung Ngo, Co-Chair of the Summit's Research Committtee, presented research to Summit delegates | Photo Credit: Henry Nguyen

Starting in 2010 BPSOS has explored the formation of a research institute to address the need for more research data on the Vietnamese-American community. Data on the Vietnamese American community about needs, characteristics, challenges, strengths and opportunities have remained scarce.  As the youngest American community with more than half of its population arriving in the U.S. after 1990, the Vietnamese American community needs more and better data to guide its strategic community development.

For a long time, to guide BPSOS’ own development of service programs, we had relied primarily on staff reports, anecdotal stories from clients, focus group studies, or our own surveys.

In more recent years, we have partnered with a number of academic institutions and research institutes to conduct research on health, mental health, cancer, hepatitis B, emergency response, domestic violence, etc. These academic institutions and research institutes include Johns Hopkins University, Howard University, George Mason University, University of Houston, University of Texas, New York University, Tulane University, Emory University, Cancer Alliance of Texas, Atlanta Clinical Translational Science Institute, Advance Practice Centers, and National Association of County & City Health Officials among others. Though these research projects conducted were limited in scope and geographic areas, they laid the foundation for the development of VARI.

As a communtiy research institute, VARI aims to:

1. Compile and disseminate available research findings related to Vietnamese-Americans;
2. Create opportunities for Vietnamese-American and other researchers to conduct research on the Vietnamese-American individuals, families and community; and
3. Encourage more Vietnamese-Americans to choose research as their professional career.

As a start, VARI will collaborate with the Census Bureau to disseminate Census 2010 data widely to the Vietnamese-Americans nationwide; compile available data to support national Vietnamese-American organizations in developing strategic plans, and local communities in formulating their plans of action; and advocate for more funded researches on the Vietnamese American population.

Anh Nguyen of the Census Bureau presented overview of community demographics at the Inaugural Summit. | Photo Credit: Henry Nguyen