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.
In this image, Robert Dampier, left, a plumbing and pipe fitting trainee at SOIC, voices students' complaints about inadequate instruction, lack of instructional materials, overcrowding, and safety hazards in some areas. Welding student Abigail Tawrel, right center, and others listen.
Caption information source: Seattle Times, February 5, 1967, p.10; September 2, 1974, p. 23; April 23, 1980, p. 43. Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photo.
