To make visitors more aware of its offerings and its role within the Petal School District, the Coleman Center For Families and Children is doing a little re-branding, complete with a new logo and a couple of other changes.
“We’re always talking about how people come in and say ‘we didn’t even know that y’all were here,’ and they really don’t get from our (current) logo that we are serving children here,” center director Dede Smith said. “And we get calls asking us what we do here, so over time we just had more and more conversations about how important it is to brand ourselves, and to let people know that we do serve children.
“The other thing is, is that many people do not know that we are part of the Petal School District.”
The new logo, which was designed by Petal native and Nobile Motive owner Paul Tynes, features on its left side a silhouette of a person standing underneath four hands – one red, one yellow, one green and one blue. Taken as a whole, the images form a tree trunk with branches reaching from it.
The right-hand side of the logo reads “Petal School District: The Coleman Center For Families and Children.”
“If you look at it, the trunk of the tree could represent a child growing,” Smith said. “Another way to look at it is that all of the services that we provide here are the trunk of the tree that helps the child grow.
“The different-colored hands represent our four cornerstones: building relationships, early learning, family support and integrated community services. So it represents that support that we’re providing to children, and the cornerstones that all of our work should be focused on.”
The rebranding also focuses on honoring the work of Nadine Coleman, the former director of the center who currently serves as the chair for the Petal Excel By 5 Coalition.
“In the past, we’ve answered the phone and said ‘Center For Families and Children,’” Smith said. “So now, instead of calling ourselves the Center For Families and Children, we’re going to switch to answering the phone with ‘The Coleman Center’ – that’s going to be our shortened name.
“It’s a way to make sure that we continue to honor Mrs. Nadine, and also, it just keeps the name of our center front and center, even when we’re answering the phone.”
Center officials are currently working on updating signage and digital areas with the rebranding efforts.
“When you do something like that, you start asking yourself what all you need to update,” Smith said. “So we’ve already updated our Facebook page, and we’ll be updating our webpage with the district.
“And we’re going to order stationary, and all the little things that we use around the center will show our logo and everything. We haven’t started on that yet, but all of that will probably go on next year’s budget. And that’s one reason we’re trying to go ahead and get it done, so that we will be ready to kick off next school year with all of those things in place.”
The Coleman Center For Families and Children is located at 201 West Central Ave. in Petal and provides family support activities such as playshops, early childhood academy, the Backyard Bus and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. For more information, call (601) 584-4704.
