Everybody is somebody.
This is a sentiment that staff at the David Busby Centre not only wear on their sleeves, but also more recently across their chests, backs and even around their necks.
The community not-for-profit organization, which has been helping the local homeless community by providing resources and shelter for more than 25 years, has recently undergone a rebranding of sorts. It’s new tagline is about the belief that every single person has value, says the Barrie centre’s executive director, Sara Peddle.
“We want to be able to support all of the people we are serving,” she said.
When creating their new “brand," Peddle said they were trying to figure out ways to get that message out to the community.
“With the pandemic people were saying we should get masks with it on so we did some prototypes with masks. It was more an internal, fun thing for the staff," she said.
It was from that, Peddle said, that the organization started considering the idea of growing that idea to include other types of branded merchandise.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created difficulties for organizations to fund-raise because of the community’s inability to gather, she noted, which left them trying to find different and unique ways to raise money to support the organization.
At the same time, Peddle said they were also getting a lot of requests from staff, who were spending a lot of days in the hotel looking after people, for “comfy sweaters."
“We decided at Christmas it would be our appreciation gift to staff and we’d make some nice hoodies and thank them for all of their amazing work… and get our tagline out there,” she said. “People started to post on social media and then had others in the community asking where they got it.”
All that positive feedback made them stop and think, she added.
“Fundraising is hard right now and we needed something creative and fun. We had these beautiful hoodies we’d just had made and it is a great slogan to involve the whole community, so we decided to make more," said Peddle.
They teamed up with Simcoe County’s TMBranding to create different types of branded merchandise, as well as a website where the T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, lanyards and patches can be purchased.
“We were trying to figure out, from a pandemic response safety measure, how to get the merch out to people and TMbranding did it all for us," Peddle said. "Now when I am out at the grocery store, and people see the slogan, they know right away it’s the Busby Centre.
“It’s really great," she added. "Our staff are feeling really appreciated and empowered because when they’re wearing it in the community people are thanking them for their work. It’s just been a really all around great opportunity.”
Peddle says the goal is to add a new item every few weeks.
“What we are trying to do is functional things that people want and need,” she said, adding they’re even considering the possibility of branded fanny packs soon.
“Fanny packs have made a comeback and people are asking us for those (and) we have a memorial shirt we are putting together right now honouring Rev. David Busby, who was obviously one of the founders of our organization,” Peddle said. “We are trying to keep it fun and fresh and have things for our supporters and staff to look forward to and make it very universal.”
Money raised through the sale of the merchandise will be used to cover some of the centre’s operating costs as well as help the individuals the Mulcaster Street centre serves.
“We’ve been very lucky in that we’ve received some funding through government’s for COVID response, like us being in the hotel (on Essa Road), but we do still have a building we are paying rent on, which is still operating (and) staffing costs that are outside of that COVID response,” Peddle said.
“It’s trying to make sure those dollars go back into the operation of the stuff we need to cover, but also looking for direct initiatives to help people get back into housing," she added. "That’s where we are trying to focus those dollars and trying to get as many people housed as possible.”
Although this fundraising effort was created in response to the pandemic, it’s something Peddle says will definitely continue after the fact.
“It’s not just a good slogan, it’s a belief for us. Everybody is somebody in our community and it’s a good reminder that we are all in this together… from a pandemic perspective, but also from a homelessness perspective,” she said. “Our unhoused neighbours are just as important. We need to continue to support everybody and treat everybody as a somebody and make sure that we are working together as a community to end homelessness.”
Merchandise can be purchased by clicking here.
