SOLID, like many good non-profits, began our services humbly in 2007 with one employee working across the street from VicPD providing drop-in HIV and HepC support groups and daily syringe recovery around the community. In 2017, we grew quickly to address the overdose epidemic, using our long-standing team of part-time volunteers to develop a team of highly committed and experienced overdose response workers. Currently, the SOLID team has expanded to over 100 employees and our greater membership is made up of over 3000 community members. All of our staff provide experiential street support services to reduce the harms associated with poverty, drug use, and homelessness in Victoria. We operate primarily through contracts and partnerships with Island Health, BC Housing, and First Nations Health Authority. SOLID provides overdose prevention services at seven sites in Victoria, outreach to homeless encampments, housing case management and housing support, health access, detox/treatment, indigenous-led cultural programs, and, most recently, overnight sheltering and drop-in access supports, services and referrals.  All of these services are provided by and for people with lived experience of street life and the circumstances surrounding it, and are also a form of vocational therapy and psycho-social healing for all of our staff and our members who have the opportunity to become staff or volunteers.

SOLID provides our services on the traditional, unceded territories of the Lkwungen (Songhees and Esquimalt) peoples. We acknowledge that we are guests on these lands. We are committed to building relationships with local nations to ensure our community work meets the needs of indigenous peoples and settlers who are suffering from lack of access to basic needs such as housing, health, and community supports on these lands. We are committed to maintaining an organization led by, and for, many urban Indigenous People.