The Multi-Service Center has hired a new CEO to lead its nonprofit charity work in South King County.

Kirsten York has taken the helm from recent CEO Robin Corak, who spent 22 years at MSC and retired this year.

Corak said in a newsletter that she is excited “to welcome Kirsten York as MSC’s next CEO who will lead MSC into the next chapter of help, hope, and change for our community. Under her leadership, MSC will continue to address and provide solutions for the most pressing needs of those in our community.”

York comes from a background of similar community work including leadership in energy, homelessness, family services and more.

The Multi-Service Center serves 40,000 people every year in South King County through housing, food bank, education and employment, energy assistance and a long-term care ombudsman program.

York told the Mirrorthat she is “looking forward to continuing the legacy of this leadership.” adding that “Robin’s leadership has been exceptional to this organization, so I have a wonderful predecessor who’s just put this organization in such a great position for the future.”

York also shared that so far, she is impressed by the emphasis on celebrating and supporting diversity both within the organization’s staff and in the community they serve.

“I’m really excited about just learning from them how they’ve best served those communities in the past and how we can continue to enhance services for accessibility,” York told the Mirror, adding that she is looking forward to continuing to “use equity as a lens to serve the most amount of clients that we can serve.”

One of these factors for accessibility is language access.

“I think that’s really critical for the comfort and safety of clients to have someone who speaks their language,” York said. Someone who “knows how to support them or understands their situation either as an immigrant or a refugee or someone who’s new to the community or coming in and trying to settle here.”

The Multi-Service Center has several projects on the horizon, including the construction of 334 units of new housing.

York explained the importance of having a variety of housing services to meet people where they are at. She said that MSC provides housing services that range from coordinated entry, where homeless clients go through intake to be assessed and put on a master list, all the way to services for homelessness prevention like rental assistance.

“I think that continuum is really critical because there are folks all along that continuum,” York said. “It is by far less expensive to prevent homelessness than it is to put someone who is homeless in a house.”

York told the Mirror that “for me and my skill sets coming in, I think we’re just looking at ways to continue to be creative and innovative with funding, create more sustainability in funding sources and the expansion of creative solutions to serving clients.”

York said one of these creative solutions could include adding Medicaid services for supportive housing. She led her previous organization through an integration of Medicaid funded services that added more services that the organization could offer and also created a stable income stream. This income helped them meet needs that grant funding couldn’t. She used the examples of someone who needs new boots to start a work training program or needs help paying for a new ID.

Although it is just her third week, York said she is interested in bringing that strategy to MSC.

“We’re considering that for the future,” she said, adding that it could be just another way to “best serve our community with accessibility and equity and a lens for living on our values. to support our neighbors.”

The team at MSC is celebrating the new leadership as well.

“We are delighted to welcome Kirsten as our new CEO. Her exceptional leadership skills, strategic insights, and deep knowledge of community action agencies makes her the ideal choice to lead Multi-Service Center,” Joe Atkinson, MSC Board President, said in a press release. “We have great confidence in Kirsten’s ability to steer MSC towards even greater achievements in the future.”