“It was really the lack of access to services,” shares Elizabeth (Liz) Johnson when asked how the Multi-Service Center came to be.
In 1971, Liz was the Lead Head Start teacher in Federal Way and had three young children. Her husband, Preston, was just a year out of law school, having attended on the GI Bill after serving in the Army.
“I did an experiment,” shares Liz. “I went with a Head Start mom and her preschooler by bus to downtown Seattle to access the services she needed. It took us all day to complete the trip and about three hours each way on the bus with a young child.”
The creation of the Multi-Service Center, known then as the South King County Multi-Service Center, was truly about community supporting community. Liz, along with other local Head Start parents from Federal Way and Kent, Harold Trumbull, Ken Kussman, Scott Shutte, and Bill Slettevold, formed the founding Board of Directors of MSC, and Liz served as board secretary for three years.
Preston was able to use his newly acquired skills as an attorney to help incorporate MSC as a non-profit and file all the proper paperwork. Members of the Federal Way Community Council helped advocate for funding. In the beginning, the board of directors did a lot of the day-to-day work, with the support of many volunteers who helped to provide services, and one staff member.
Multi-Service Center truly was a center where people could easily access multiple services all under one roof. Families throughout South King County could come for help with needs such as food stamps, credit counseling, childcare, medical and dental services, education, unemployment benefits, employment referrals, and elder counseling. Many of these programs were offered in partnership with other organizations such as King County Public Health that provided an immunization clinic for babies and the Lions Club that provided eye glasses.
As needs and resources changed in the community, the services at MSC also changed. When MSC moved out of its first location at the Stone House and to Mark Twain Elementary in 1975, a food bank was added. Shortly thereafter, MSC started offering more health services and energy assistance. And then, in 1980, MSC had the opportunity to acquire the status of a Community Action Agency, which would bring additional funding to provide services through the Community Services Block Grant, planting the seeds for the tremendous growth that would come in the years to follow.
Alisa, one of Liz and Preston’s children, remembers going to the Stone House (MSC’s original location on Pacific Highway) and standing outside waiting for her mom. “I learned at a young age that a small group of passionate people can get things done,” she shares.
The original five founding board members probably did not imagine that what they started with a budget of $30,000 in 1971, would grow into an organization serving over 40,000 people a year with a budget of over $20 million.
“I can’t take credit for something that has continued for so many years. It was day-by-day in the beginning, and unclear if we would survive,” shares Liz. “But, to know that I did something this important with my life, that Multi-Service Center is still here, that is significant.”
