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From FPA to Solid Ground
In the spring of 1974, a group of neighborhood activists and volunteers responded to growing economic desperation in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood by launching the Fremont Public Association (FPA). Tapping into the spirit and funding of the federal War on Poverty, they pledged to work for Freedom from Poverty through Action.
In response to neighbors’ immediate needs for food and employment, the FPA started with a food pantry, clothing bank, and job referral service. The agency grew rapidly by asking the community what it needed, then aggressively pursued funding to develop programs and services. It branched out into many areas, including housing, transportation, and youth development. It convened partnerships and coalitions, created innovative service models, and continued to base its advocacy on the input of community members.
In 2007, FPA took a new name, Solid Ground, to reflect how its impacts went well beyond the neighborhood where it started. Today, we continue to partner with our community to develop services and advocacy efforts focused on overcoming barriers to thriving and supporting equitable access to opportunity.
Celebrating our 50th Anniversary is a time to reflect on more than a million success stories – and on the staff, volunteers, and supporters who helped build a community where all of our neighbors are able to thrive. Thanks for joining us in this reflection!
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Events
Day of Service commemorates 50 years of building community to end poverty
Nearly 200 volunteers at five sites came together on Friday, August 23 to do community cleanup, garden, and put some sweat equity into the proposition that by working together we can solve poverty!
In honor of Solid Ground’s 50th Anniversary, the project sites included some of our service locations as well as places that are historically important to us:
- Magnuson Park, where our Sand Point Housing provides permanent housing for more than 400 people who have lived through the experience of homelessness.
- Marra Farm, where our Giving Garden grows organic produce for the surrounding South Park neighborhood.
- Solid Ground’s Transportation Hub, also in South Park, where our ACCESS fleet provides compassionate transportation options for people to get to medical appointments, community services, and more.
- Wallingford Playfield Park, just a few blocks away from our administrative offices in Wallingford.
- Fremont Canal Park, in the neighborhood where we got our start as the Fremont Public Association in 1974.
50th Anniversary Gala
Our hearts are full after celebrating a half century of progress toward solving poverty with our Solid Ground family. Thank you to all who joined us to honor our past and look toward our transformative future together. See highlights of the event in Converge Media’s Celebrating 50 Years of Impact: Solid Ground’s Journey to Eradicate Poverty in Seattle.
Left: Members of Converge Media, including 50th Gala keynote speaker Omari Salisbury (with flowers) and his mother, the Reverend Harriet Walden (foreground). Right: Solid Ground’s CEO Shalimar Gonzales.
Stories Celebrating a Half Century
5/20/24: VIDEO: Solid Ground’s legacy of cultivating anti-poverty leaders and organizations
Solid Ground has touched countless lives through the anti-poverty leaders and organizations we’ve planted and nurtured over the last five decades. Take a good look at many of the organizations doing the most impactful work in King County today, and you’re likely to find a bit of Solid Ground in their roots.
At our recent 50th Anniversary Gala, Solid Ground debuted 50 Years of Cultivating Leadership, a video that examines how we’ve provided leadership development and supported fledgling organizations that have grown to profoundly shape our community.
“Some of our communities’ most impactful social service and social justice organizations were first sown in the Solid Ground seedbed and now flourish on their own,” says Eva Walker, Solid Ground volunteer and KEXP DJ, who narrated the video.
4/8/24: A seed of hope blossoms into an impactful career
Patricia Flores (photo by Clarissa Magdich)
In 1994, Patricia Flores called Solid Ground’s Broadview Emergency Shelter for families escaping and recovering from domestic violence (DV). She was looking for a safe haven for herself, her daughter, and her grandson.
They found safety and security there – but more than that, her time at Broadview opened the door to Patricia’s lifelong career as a community organizer and leader in the sexual assault and DV communities – most recently as Executive Director of Tacoma’s Catherine Place, a resource center for women and LGBTQIA+ people.
Last fall, Patricia visited Broadview for the first time in 30 years. It was a deeply emotional moment. “Something spoke to me and said: ‘You were here, and now you were the executive director of a center, a nonprofit that helps women.’ It was really cathartic and mind blowing,” she says. “And it just really reflects the innate possibilities of every human, given the right circumstances, and supporting them when their confidence is really low, or broken, or gone.”
2/28/24: Omari Salisbury to present keynote at Solid Ground’s 50th Anniversary Gala
Omari Salisbury of Converge Media
Solid Ground is thrilled to announce that Converge Media’s Omari Salisbury will present the keynote address at our 50th Anniversary Gala on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, 5:30pm at SUMMIT.
In just eight years, Converge Media has built an award-winning legacy telling stories about, from, and to Seattle’s Black community and BIPOC communities throughout the Pacific Northwest. As one of its pioneering cofounders, Omari has amplified the work of Black thinkers and local journalists while earning a growing audience in Seattle and beyond – at a time when so-called “traditional” news outlets are cutting back or closing shop.
Omari’s keynote will be a rare opportunity to hear him reflect on his love for the community, the wisdom he has gained building a Black-owned media company, and his vision for a future where being poor might describe your circumstances but does not define your future. Read our interview, edited from a conversation with Omari at Converge’s downtown studio.
2/14/24: Black leadership and the roots of anti-racism at Solid Ground
Cheryl in 2007 with Ron Chisom, cofounder of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, as she accepts the first-ever Ron Chisom Anti-Racism Award from the Seattle Human Services Coalition.
For a little more than half of our 50-year history, Solid Ground was guided by the leadership and wisdom of one woman: Cheryl Cobbs Murphy.
Under Cheryl’s guidance, we built hundreds of apartments for people moving out of homelessness, developed two urban farms to grow food with and for neighborhoods with little access to fresh produce, and expanded our transportation fleet to help thousands of people with disabilities get where they need to go.
But if you ask Cheryl which of the many accomplishments from her 27 years at Solid Ground make her proudest, she’ll tell you that her true legacy was embedding anti-racism principles into every aspect of how we work to solve poverty. “It’s my life’s work, and so it’s always going to be a part of who I am,” says Cheryl, who continues to work with other nonprofits to prioritize anti-racism. “It’s really important to me – and frankly, I wouldn’t be doing this work if it wasn’t for Solid Ground.”
1/29/24: Commemorative logo honors agency history and legacy
Our 50th Anniversary logo on a sunburst backsplash
As we celebrate the milestone of 50 years of progress toward solving poverty, we’re unveiling our 50th Anniversary logo to be featured throughout 2024.
The unique design incorporates several elements of our history, including a representation of the Fremont neighborhood’s ‘Waiting for the Interurban’ sculpture, which served as the primary logo of Solid Ground’s forebear, Fremont Public Association (FPA). Iconography embedded in the image also reflects programs that have been at the core of our work and mission to solve poverty and undo racism and other oppressions that are root causes of poverty.
1/5/24: 50 Years of ‘Freedom from Poverty through Action’
Fremont Public Association (FPA) leaders around 1988 (l to r): Pat Hayes, Yanira Cuellar, Frank Chopp, Cheryl Cobbs Murphy, Paul Haas
Of the thousands of staff, volunteers, and community members who’ve contributed to the success of Solid Ground and its forebear, the Fremont Public Association (FPA), perhaps no one has had a more profound and lasting impact in Washington state than Representative and former Speaker of the House Frank Chopp.
Frank served as FPA Executive Director for 17 formative years, from 1983 until 2000. While still leading the agency, he took his passion for advocacy and coalition building to Olympia in 1995 as the state representative for Seattle’s 43rd District. He went on to lead the state House of Representatives from 1999 to 2019, serving out one of the longest tenures as a state legislative Speaker in the nation’s history.
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