Opportunities Industrialization Center records, 1966-1988

OIC Seattle (often refered to locally as "SOIC") was incorporated in May 1966 as a private, nonprofit community-based vocational training center. It was founded as an outgrowth of the OIC movement which had been started two years earlier in Philadelphia. In 1972, OIC Seattle became the first community-based organization to receive federal designation as a Skills Center. Its rapid growth and expanding programs made possible the building of a multi-million dollar training center dedicated in 1974. OIC Seattle'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. It attempted to continue its services by totally reorganizing its service delivery system. Efforts continued another two years but on September 25, 1986, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy notice was filed.