Celebrating pathways built, and those who travel them

For Florene, it was help paying the upfront costs of securing a new apartment after a period of homelessness. For Lyssa, it was a two-bedroom apartment and the support of a case manager. For others, it’s help putting food on the table, a ride to and from a doctor’s appointment, or the support of a behavioral health counselor.

The truth is, everybody who’s experienced poverty must travel their own unique path to move beyond it – to a life of stability, opportunity, and hope. That’s why, for just over 50 years, Solid Ground has worked to meet people where they are to help them build their own personal pathways to a better future.

It’s also why more than 250 members of the Solid Ground community gathered for our annual Gala this spring to celebrate those pathways, uplift the people who’ve traveled them, and pledge to build even more together. Held in the Seattle Convention Center’s Summit building on May 28, this year’s celebration featured poetry, photography, jazz, food, and inspiring words from the frontlines of our work to solve poverty.

“I believe the answers are in this room,” Erin Jones – an educator, author, and advocate – told the crowd from the ballroom stage. “I believe the resources are in this room.”

A woman in a dark suit jacket stands at a podium with a sign that reads "Solid Ground."

Shalimar Gonzales, Solid Ground CEO (photo by Michael B. Maine)

‘Something we can all rely on’

Though this year’s Gala was marked by celebration, joy, and hope, there was no escaping the urgency and need that we currently face as a community and as a nation. Shalimar Gonzales, Solid Ground’s CEO, put it plainly:

“There are a lot of things happening in our nation’s capital and across the country today that pose a grave threat to the freedom and well-being of each and every one of us, especially communities that are often the most vulnerable and marginalized even in the best of times,” she said. “The onslaught of unilateral executive orders, funding cuts, and mass firings coming from the White House has the potential to rapidly erode our community’s ability to keep our most vulnerable neighbors fed, housed, and healthy.”

“In the last few weeks, there’s been a direct attack on nonprofits with an executive order suggesting that we can be deemed a terrorist organization at the whim of this administration,” Shalimar continued. “And although we do not know what will come next, what we do know is this: We have entered a time that demands courage from all of us. And for Solid Ground, this means that we will not capitulate in the face of threats from our federal government.”

Shalimar reminded us that just five years ago, many of us believed the pandemic would be the greatest challenge we would have to overcome as a community. But, she said, we got through it – and we will get through this as well – together.

“If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught me, it’s that there is something that we can all rely on. We can rely on each other,” she said. “We can rely on each other for a helping hand. We can rely on each other for guidance and encouragement. And we can rely on our partners like you all in this room today to support us.”

A woman with long silver hair stands at a microphone.

Amy H, Broadview Domestic Violence Children’s Program Supervisor

‘Are we homeless?’

What does this support make possible? As just one example, Amy H., Domestic Violence Children’s Program Supervisor at Solid Ground’s Broadview Shelter and Transitional Housing, described the transformation and growth she’s seen in the children of parents escaping domestic violence.

“One of my favorite parts of this work is to be able to offer programs and experiences that excite, empower our youth to explore their world, to grow in confidence, to discover big ideas, and express themselves in a safe space,” she said. “We provide that safe and stable space to be children and to gain the tools to grow into their best selves.”

Amy recalled a long car ride with several Broadview kids in which they thoughtfully debated a critical question: “Are we homeless?”

“Some of the kids were old enough to be aware that other people did consider them homeless,” she said. “They didn’t have forever places to live, but they didn’t live outside. They were safe and life was more reliable. They ate every day, they had new clothes and they had school supplies. They had fun things to do and friends to do it with.

“It was an incredibly thoughtful discussion to witness,” she continued. “And in the end, our kids decided, ‘Nah, we’re not homeless.’ They’re not homeless because they had Broadview, they had each other. They weren’t homeless because they had us, and they have you.”

A young woman in a brown suit smiles and leans against a round table in a convention center lobby.

Florene Jimerson, photographer & Solid Ground participant

‘Healthy spaces to thrive’

We also heard from Florene Jimerson, a young photographer whose childhood growing up in Seattle’s Central District was characterized by instability and displacement fueled by the neighborhood’s rapid gentrification.

“I knew that the circumstances that I was in wasn’t necessarily the fault of my parents or myself or anybody else around us,” Florene said in a video played for the audience. “It was literally the systems that were placed in America. It was the systems that were placed to keep us down, the Black families down. I’ve just been able to see gentrification really be the main reason why my childhood was so unstable.”

When Florene connected with Solid Ground, she was in her mid-20s and had just experienced another period of homelessness. She had a steady job and earned enough to pay rent, but she didn’t have the thousands of dollars she needed to cover the upfront costs of leasing an apartment.

Solid Ground took care of it, and Florene moved into her new apartment in the Central District – the same community that she’d been forced out of by raising housing costs earlier in her life.

“It’s so important that programs like Solid Ground exist, because they just remove the small little barriers that keep people stuck into not wanting to fight, or having these opportunities, or just being able to be in healthy spaces to thrive,” she said.

Besides giving her a stable place to live, the new apartment gave Florene a chance to focus on her passion for photography. Several of her prints were displayed just outside the Gala ballroom, and others were printed on a set of greeting cards that attendees were invited to take home.

See more of Florene’s work on her website, flodid.com.

‘The simple gift of Solid Ground’

Florene’s video was followed by a performance from Lyssa Bastet, a poet and mother who lives in Solid Ground’s Sand Point Housing.

A woman in a red dress and long teal dreadlocks speaks at a podium on a stage.

Lyssa Bastet, poet & Sand Point Housing resident

In her specially commissioned poem, Lyssa described months of desperate fundraising on Facebook to make ends meet while living in a shelter with her nonverbal toddler. Here’s an excerpt:

“For two months,
I made phone calls.
I went to appointments.
I filled out applications.
I pushed a giant stroller to the market.
I cried in bed at night.
I can honestly say I never lost hope.
I lost sleep, I lost patience,
I lost most of my mind.
But hope?
I’ve always been foolishly full of it.”

And she described the transformations that became possible when she found the stability and support of Solid Ground’s Sand Point community. Today, Lyssa’s son is an “opinionated and sassy” third grader with “intense main-character energy.”

“I am now an aspiring poet,
still housed, still making noise
about spirituality, mental illness, politics
and what could be achieved
with the simple gift
of Solid Ground.”

See more of Lyssa’s work on her Patreon page, A Void with a Voice.

Woman with an afro wearing white shirt and dark jacket gestures as she speaks at a podium on a stage.

Erin Jones, educator & author

‘Every single person’

We closed out the night with words of wisdom from Erin Jones, a longtime celebrated educator and author of Bridges to Heal US: Stories and Strategies for Racial Healing. She described the revelations, as a teenager, that led her to a career in teaching.

“I knew by the time I was 19 years old that zip code and race and home language were absolutely the greatest predictors of how children got to experience school. But I also knew by 19 that America likes to wait until people are really failing before they invest,” she said.

“So why am I here tonight? Because Solid Ground is on the front end of this. Solid Ground is looking at the back end and the front end and thinking about, ‘What can we do to be that safety net so that people don’t have to get to the place where they have nothing?’

“And I think what that requires is seeing every person – that person on the corner, that person sleeping in their car – being willing to see every single person as valuable.”

Couldn’t make the Gala? Don’t worry! There are still plenty of Ways to Give!