REST Centres Rebrand
Since our beginnings in 2015, we have been building a community committed to providing shelter to youth in need. We see that there is an absence of security in the avenues available for youth to overcome their adversities, and want to create long-term solutions that a shelter simply would not be able to solve.
We want not only to provide youth with the rights and necessities of shelter and food but also healing and growth. We want to foster a place where freedom and stability could become a reality for those who came to our organization, and where our youth could trust that our support would help them achieve a more fruitful future. By doing so, we hope to rekindle the discussion around homelessness and be able to wear away the stigma around it in our own community; with homelessness not being a result of laziness, poor work ethic, or poor planning but rather the systems and institutions that hinder success.
We believe that REST Centres works towards and succeeds in its goals every day, but we know that our work is far from over.
As time moves forward, we must always adapt, change, and update our approaches to give our best efforts and garner attention to the issues we advocate for. For us, these changes include an update of the organization’s image and what we want our youth, our supporters and the general public to see.
We have newly rebranded both the aesthetic elements of our image such as our logo and colours, as well as the meanings we want to bring to the community through our organization. This is what our designer, Kelly Riback Small had in mind when helping us craft our new brand:
More of Kelly’s work can be found here
“Rigorous research, a co-creative approach with REST founder Dagma Koyi and her team, and ongoing efforts to decolonize our thinking led us to develop a vibrant, textural and culturally appropriate identity that celebrates the resilience, restoration of lives, self-worth, and pride in community that is cultivated at REST Centres. Powerful typography, vivid natural colours, and organic blocky forms represent the building blocks necessary for social transition that, as proven by REST, can be infused with joy, spirituality, and self-actualization.”
Those who have worked towards the rejuvenation of our brand have created and put meaning to REST’s colours, textures, and icons to represent our goals and the BIPOC youth that we serve.
Some of the further meanings we want to impart to those within our community can be put into several keywords:
Approachable
Loyal
Integrous
Freedom
Belonging
Community
Ambitious
Evocative
Impassioned
Pioneering
Committed
Authentic
Inviting
We asked our youth what some of these words mean to them and how REST embodies these words in working with them:
"The 4 words [Ambition, Freedom, Belongingness and Community] are the traits that REST tries to cultivate in the youths that they advocate for" - Lattrell
"Everyone comes from a time & place where they wanna know where they wanna go in life. When I think of the words - Ambition, Freedom, Belongingness & Community, what comes to mind is: connection to society & REST has truly provided that ammunition for me to feel some kind of willingness to connect to society / the world as a whole." - Courtney
"Ambition is something I never really had due to my situation & background. Freedom gives me a sense of worthiness and REST for me is like a supportive family that helps me when I'm in need and that gives me that sense of freedom which leaves me feeling worthy. Especially when Bare Necessities give me the freedom of being able to afford my other needs, while it covers my grocery expenses. Belongingness & Community to me then, is something I've also never had before. REST gives me that sense of Community and belongingness through events. Christmas Cheer for example gave me the opportunity to meet staff and personally thank them and receive gifts in return. I haven't received a Christmas present ever since I was 16 y/o ,so receiving a gift I asked for really means a lot to me and has given me a sense of belongingness.” - Zachary
We will continue serving the youth of our community under our new brand and are grateful for your support. Thank you for following the path and progression of REST Centres.