Queens Community House
The Challenge
After facing several years of challenging political and community tensions, Forest Hills Community House in New York finally opened its doors in 1975 with just three staff members. From the very beginning, their mission was to bring together economically, ethnically and racially diverse residents within their community. The center was to be a place where all residents could join together to provide the opportunity for neighbors to help each other.
Since then, Forest Hills Community House has been successfully running programs in neighborhoods well beyond its original Forest Hills/Rego Park roots, employing more and more people to achieve their goals.
For GK Brand the challenge was a to find a way for a multi-stakeholder organization, full of wonderful local New York history, politics and personalities to come together and agree on an update name change and build a stronger, unified brand identity.
What we did
Since its inception, the organization had expanded into 14 other communities outside of Forest Hills, leaving some of its members and potential members confused, and even worse, disinterested. To overcome this challenge, GK Brand conducted research and interviews with the various community and political stakeholders involved.
It was clear from the outset that renaming the organization was an overwhelmingly supported goal within the community. GK Brand explored various options for renaming the organization, including the possibility of creating an umbrella organization, and even four sub-brands in order to maintain the unique character of each of their divisions, and to allow expansion openings for future add-ons.
In the end, our solution to name the organization Queens Community House was by far the most acceptable to all the different stakeholder groups. Once we got everyone to agree on a new name change, the next challenge was how to get the stakeholders on board to agree on a new look, logo, color palette, and unite under one strong brand voice!
GK Brand then got to work and created, communicated and promoted a new brand image that was fresh, modern and appealing to the community members. Our aim was to develop a brand that crossed cultural boundaries, and highlighted Queens Community House’s dedication to providing caring and devoted services to all its communities members. We presented our design concepts and are delighted to say that they were warmly received and agreed upon.
Results
Forest Hills Community House officially changed its name to Queens Community House, reflecting its growth and successful partnerships and collaborations. Today, Queens Community House has over 400 full and part-time staff, offering youth, community and senior programs in 20 sites, and serves over 20,000 people a year.
Creating a fresh brand image for the future rejuvenated the organization and gave them a stronger identity to collectively work together. The Queens Community House is now a diverse, multi-service organization with a mission committed to the personal growth of the diverse people it serves, and the creation of self-reliant, open, responsible communities. Queen’s Community House embodies the core belief that all people can, and want, to grow, and that all can contribute to society. They offer a multi-service settlement house that serves nearly 25,000 children, youth, adults and older adults at 22 different sites in 11 neighborhoods throughout Queens, NY.
Visit Queens Community House at www.queenscommunityhouse.org