Regional Disaster Preparedness Organizations (RDPO) Project
To prepare regional business and organization leaders for disaster, API Forward is partnering with Taborvilla NET to enhance both organizations’ internal capacity for emergency outreach, preparedness and response. Together, we seek to develop and enhance culturally-sensitive community resilience programming for local community groups, particularly Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) CBOs in SE Portland.
Community
Engagement
Liaisons
Duyên (Kate) Frederiksen
Duyên (Kate) Frederiksen is a multi-racial, recent college graduate. During her three years at the University of Oregon, she was deeply involved in on-campus student organizations, such as the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA), Kultura Pilipinas (KP), and the Asian and Pacific American Student Union (APASU), where she actually held leadership positions for two years with APASU.
Her work within APASU was focused primarily on the student environment and promoting Anti-Racism on campus for both the AANHPI community, but also all students on campus. She helped with proposing and planning for a DEI course (with her team) that will eventually become required for all students on campus and her work helped APASU win the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Outstanding Student Organization Award.
Now that Duyên is graduated from UO, she is working with API Forward as one of the Community Engagement Liaisons, and as a Community Development Intern with Local Grown, a non-profit that distributes scholarships targeting POC students within Oregon. When she has free time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, K-pop (her favorite group being Seventeen), traveling, going to concerts, and playing games (both video and board games). She was excited to join API Forward as a Community Engagement Liasion for the opportunity to learn more about the SE Portland area, most importantly, to help support and uplift API businesses and organizations within the area.
David Hoàng
David Hoàng is excited to join the RDPO project with API Forward Foundation and Taborvilla NET. His interest in emergency management stems from watching his parents run a donut shop during his childhood in the North Tabor neighborhood.
The social and political movements that occurred throughout the late 2010s sparked his curiosity to venture into advocacy work, which included a position as a city youth commissioner, a spot on his high school constitutional law team, and a trip to the country’s capital with the American Civil Liberties Union. His past work experience has been with APANO and the Portland Bureau of Transportation. David is currently studying Urban & Public Affairs at Portland State University, where he maintains several mentorship positions and serves on a committee that will establish the school’s first Pacific Islander and Asian American Studies program.