Spanish Speaking Organization for Community Integrity and Opportunity (SOCIO) photograph collection, circa 1955-1973

Spanish-Speaking Organization for Community, Integrity and Opportunity (SOCIO) traces its beginnings to a meeting held at the Guadalupe Center in Salt Lake City on December 15, 1967. This meeting was organized by members of Utah's Hispanic community to discuss ways in which the social and economic status of Hispanics in Utah might be improved. During the next 20 years, SOCIO established chapters throughout Utah and became the largest organization of its kind in the state. The first chapter of SOCIO was formally organized in 1968 with offices located on the University of Utah campus. Through this office, SOCIO developed programs directed at Utah's Hispanic community.

One of the first was a scholarship program to help minority students continue their education at institutions of higher learning. This scholarship fund grew from $67,000 to over $700,000 during the time of SOCIO's operations. In 1971, SOCIO negotiated the establishment of the Hispanic Affairs Office in Utah state government. This development was accompanied by SOCIO's sponsoring the organization of a Migrant Worker Council chapter in Utah. By 1973, the scope of SOCIO's activities had increased to include a corrections program in cooperation with state institutions. This program reduced recidivism in the Hispanic community by forty percent through training Hispanic parole officers to work with Hispanics in the Criminal Justice System.

SOCIO moved its offices from the University of Utah to the Redwood Multipurpose Center in 1976 as its activities and membership increased. Throughout the rest of the 1970s and 1980s, SOCIO expanded its activities to include crisis relief, job training, community and juvenile corrections, minority employment programs, and outreach programs.