Welcome to Kasama Collective, Richmond, VA’s premier inclusive community celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander culture through networking, collaboration, & elevating AAPI-owned small businesses, creators, and entrepreneurs.
Our Mission
We are an inclusive community based in Richmond, VA for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders celebrating culture through networking, collaboration, & elevating AAPI-owned small businesses, creators, and entrepreneurs. Our core goals include unifying our intersecting identities and providing support centered on community building.
Purpose
What We Do
Facilitate, build, and foster a stronger Asian American + Pacific Islander community through initiatives that bring us together.
How We Do It
Gather at community building events such as mixers, festivals, various collaborations and activations with local businesses,
Why We Do It
To bring our community together to inspire, synergize, network, collaborate, and support,
We are on a mission to unify our intersecting identities and provide support centered on community building.
Kasama Collective is a local business-centric project founded in March 2023 with a goal to serve the Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities of RVA. As a collective, we aim to facilitate community and amplify shared cultural experiences through interactive, educational, and impactful ways that connect people, and serve as a branch to other area community groups through collaboration.
As of 2020, Richmond, VA is home to 1.28M residents, and Asians make up just 51k, or 3.98% of the population. Pacific Islanders comprise of just under <0.1% of the population. Together, Asians and Pacific Islanders make up the third most common ethnic group in the city.
Source: Data USA – Richmond, VA
Meet Our Co-Founders
Aubriel Rivera
Aubriel (she/her) is a first-generation Filipino-American Richmond transplant, originally from Virginia Beach. She attended Virginia Commonwealth University (undergrad: class of 2012; grad: class of 2015) and was an active board member of the Filipino-Americans Coming Together organization. Having missed the camaraderie of FACT@VCU and the Filipino pride of her hometown, as well as her natural gravitation to hospitality and curating events, she became passionate about bringing innovative and entertaining events to the Richmond and AAPI community. When she is not planning exciting Kasama events with Roxanne and the Kasama team, Aubriel loves playfully annoying her husband, is an excited mama-to-be, and is a content creating Mortgage Loan Officer, helping people buy their dream home, one Tiktok at a time.
Roxanne Atienza
Roxanne (she/they) is a first-generation Filipinx-American art director and artist based in Richmond, VA. She was driven to create a space for Asian Americans, by Asian Americans having grown frustrated with the lack of representation she saw in her city, and yearned to uplift her community. A native of Virginia Beach, Roxanne ached for the strong sense of community she experienced growing up, and after attending the 2021 Pinayista Summit in Berkeley, CA, she witnessed the impact of building Filipina sisterhood and sought to bring that energy back to her home state.
You can read more about Roxanne and her work by visiting her portfolio here.
Subscribe to Newsletter
Keep up with the latest from Kasama Collective by signing up for our monthly newsletter. We’ll recap past events and look forward to upcoming ones, as well as highlight members from the local AAPI community and other happenings throughout RVA.
Kasama Collective is powered by the community.
We are proudly operated by volunteers as it speaks true to one of the main principles we were founded on: that we are community made. We make sure our volunteers are always supported and never at capacity, and our vendors never have to pay a fee. Become involved by filling out the applications below!