Mission

Solid Ground works to end poverty and undo racism and other oppressions that are root causes of poverty.

Vision

Solid Ground believes our community can move beyond poverty and oppression to a place where all people have access to quality housing, nutritious food, equal justice and opportunities to thrive.

ARI Mission: Solid Ground’s Anti-Racism Initiative works to undo racism by identifying and addressing institutional practices and policies that are barriers to the full participation of people of color in our society. We work to address racism in our own organization as well as in the broader community by:

• Be accountable to our clients, our staff and our community.
• Provide leadership within our agency to ensure that our policies, procedures and practices are not barriers to hiring or providing services for people of color.
• Support efforts to undo institutional racism throughout our community.
• Ensure that the people we serve are active participants in our policy development and decision-making.

ARI Vision: Solid Ground's Anti-Racism Initiative is grounded in the understanding that racism perpetuates poverty, and that to end poverty we must eliminate racism. We challenge ourselves to understand and dismantle institutional racism, internalized oppressions and the dominance of white culture so that we can make our agency and the systems within which it works accountable to the people we serve. We work together within the broader community to build an equitable, multicultural community with access and power for all.

For more information, please see Solid Ground's Anti-Racism Accountability Standards.

Since 1974, Solid Ground (formerly the Fremont Public Association) has served the Seattle/King County community and beyond through:

• Leadership in addressing homelessness, hunger and poverty.
• Creativity in developing new and innovative solutions to community challenges.
• Courage in speaking out against injustice and inequality.

Solid Ground’s roots are in the Great Society anti-poverty programs launched during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency. Our progenitor was a public/private partnership called the North Seattle Community Service Center, which was funded through the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act. When the Nixon administration slashed federal funding for anti-poverty programs, the NSCSC closed its doors.

In 1974, local activists, including Rev. Robert Walker of the Fremont Baptist Church, Armen Napoleon Stepanian (later known as "Mayor of Fremont") and others, re-formed the NSCSC as a private nonprofit called the Fremont Public Association (FPA). At that time, Fremont was one of Seattle's most economically devastated neighborhoods. Our first services – an emergency food bank, a clothing bank, and an employment program – reflected the desperate needs and the determined response of a mobilized and committed neighborhood.

Over the years, as the scope and severity of homelessness and poverty have increased, so too have our services. Today Solid Ground is one of the largest multi-service agencies in King County. Whether it's homelessness, hunger, racism and other oppressions, or the struggles of working families living on low incomes, Solid Ground does not turn away from our community's most pressing and pervasive needs.

See a timeline of decades of accomplishments for Fremont Public Association AND Solid Ground. 

Phone:      206.694.6802
TTY:          7.1.1
Email:       communications@solid-ground.org 
FAX:         206.694.6777
Address:   Solid Ground
                1501 North 45th Street 
                Seattle, WA 98103-6708