The Seattle Opportunities Industrialization Center, or SOIC (pronounced "So I see"), was established in 1966, largely through a grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity, the federal agency funding "war on poverty" programs. Modeled after the original OIC started by a Philadelphia minister two years earlier, the community-based program recruited, trained and placed unemployed people in the labor market. The program grew, and a new four-story building at 22nd Ave. S. in the Central District was built in 1974, more than doubling capacity. SOIC's diversified funding and its accreditation saved the school from the financial collapse experienced at the beginning of the 1980s by many similar institutions, but it could not survive the federal government's rapid and drastic cutback of funding around 1983 and 1984. The Seattle Opportunities Industrial Center closed in August 1986.

This image shows Dr. Kwok Ki Lau, a Chinese surgeon and acupuncturist who, unable to find work in his field, is learning to become a plumber at the Seattle Opportunities Industrialization Center. He also studied English at the Center.

Caption information source: Seattle Times, February 5, 1967, p.10 and September 2, 1974, p. 23.
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photo.