If you spend time around social justice organizations like Solid Ground, you’ve likely heard someone recite a formal statement about the history of the land we occupy and the Indigenous stewards from whom it was unjustly taken. This Land Acknowledgement is both an act of gratitude for the land from which we benefit and part of a movement to undo the erasure of Indigenous peoples who continue to live among us and shape our communities today.

At Solid Ground, we take our gratitude one step further by also acknowledging the ways in which we benefit from the unaddressed legacy of stolen labor at the foundation of our country and its vast and inequitable wealth. Our Labor Acknowledgement recognizes our debt to many groups, including:  

• Indigenous peoples

• Enslaved peoples (primarily of African descent)

• Chinese immigrants (who built railroads that allowed for westward American development)

• Japanese Americans (whose properties and livelihoods were taken from them while they were incarcerated during World War II) 

• Migrant workers from the Philippines, Mexico, and Central and South America (who worked Pacific Northwest farms and canneries)

• Immigrant and American-born workers of African, Asian, and Central and South American descent (whose labor remains hidden in the shadows but still contributes to the wellbeing of our collective community)

As a modern nonprofit, we’re part of a colonialist system that stole land from Indigenous peoples and stole labor from many communities to create and grow our nation. As a progressive organization that believes in undoing institutional and systemic racism and other forms of oppression, we’re committed to taking action to understand and address our organizational privilege. Below are some of Solid Ground’s commitments to exploited communities and what we’re doing to live up to our pledges. 

Progress toward our Labor Acknowledgement commitments 

Ensure our programs and services are delivered equitably. 

• Solid Ground’s Strategic Information Systems team is working with direct service staff to establish new success measurements and how we think about Key Performance Indicators, centering program participants and communities (rather than the government bureaucrats who dictate these measures in our contracts).  

• Establish new community partnerships with five BIPOC-led agencies or communities. 

• Solicit new grants and contracts for funding innovations benefiting BIPOC and youth communities. 

• In 2025, we’ll be more intentional in defining and sharing specific quality-enhancement projects to improve how we measure success and outcomes.  

Invest our money in goods and services provided by businesses owned and operated by these communities. 

• Identify and tag BIPOC vendors in our accounting system to increase investments in their goods and services. 

• Provide honoraria to people who share stories we tell on our communications channels and people we engage in advisory capacities. 

• Implement a new gift card provider to meet participants’ and community members’ needs, or compensate them for their work for us. 

• Work with our Stabilization and Finance teams to draft a Guaranteed Basic Income proposal.  

Value lived experiences of poverty in our hiring. 

• Place job announcements on over 80 diverse job boards. 

• Participate in diverse job fairs. 

Ensure equitable access to Solid Ground’s training, promotion opportunities, and professional development. 

• Increase access to trainings through changes to scheduling – including incorporating them in our All-Staff meetings. 

• Prioritize getting staff signed up for trainings based on their roles/needs. For instance, make sure staff from residential housing programs get priority access to de-escalation trainings.  

• Share learning resources online. 

• Prioritize Annual Individual Development Plan and Anti-Racism workplans for all staff. 

Develop deeper relations w/ communities impacted by these inequities to learn how we can best support them to improve their economic stability. 

• Consult with our Community Accountability Council on issues of importance to the agency.  

• Hold peer support and community meetings at our Sand Point Housing campus. 

• Created our Vision 2030 strategic plan through a community-leadership model. 

• Our advocacy partners, Statewide Poverty Action Network, base their annual Policy Agendas on the input of people with lived experience through statewide listening sessions. 

What else can we do to honor our commitments to communities whose labor has been exploited?

• Improve how we publicize, promote, and invest in BIPOC-owned businesses, including doing an internal audit of our vendors, and using internal finance processes to highlight these businesses.  

• Increase our compensation for community members’ time. 

• Do a better job finding partners who can support BIPOC participants looking for economic development opportunities. 
• Recruit community volunteers through partnerships with BIPOC organizations and groups. 

Have an idea how Solid Ground can better live into our Land and Labor Acknowledgments? Email us at communications@solid-ground.org! We’ll work to implement those that we can. 

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Image at top: Native hop pickers pose with a hop bin and a hopyard in the background. The photograph, from around 1890, is labeled “Indians. Puget Sound.” Courtesy Washington State Historical Society, Edward Nolan collection, 2019.2.200.1.