A homelessness charity in the southwest of England has revealed its new name, after a disagreement over its previous moniker with a similarly named organisation.
From today, Julian House will be known as Alongside, with the charity also publishing new visual branding and a strategy.
The move was in part prompted by a disagreement with another homelessness charity in the same region called Julian Trust.
Its previous name Julian House was taken from the organisation’s founding project, a hostel for rough sleepers in Bath.
Helen Bedser, Alongside chief executive, said: “We are incredibly proud of the impact the Julian House hostel has had, and continues to have, for people sleeping rough.
“But over the years, our organisation has grown significantly, and we now deliver many services for people for people facing a range of complex challenges across the southwest of England – we want our name to reflect that.”
Alongside supports people who are rough sleeping,as well as those escaping domestic abuse, refugees, prison leavers and vulnerable members of travelling communities.
As part of its five-year strategy, the charity aims to widening its remit to take on projects which prevent crisis and enable people to move-on to long-term independence.
Bedser added: “Homelessness and social exclusion are not confined to a single experience; each person we support is unique and we want to create services which reflect that, empowering clients to build better lives for themselves.
“The name Alongside reflects how we work: standing shoulder to shoulder with the people we support, meeting them where they are and walking with them at every stage of their journey.
“It also reflects how we work alongside local authorities and other partners to deliver the very best outcomes for clients – which will always be our top priority.
“We need that spirit of collaboration and common cause now more than ever.”
Rebrand costs
Zoe Conn, fundraising and development director, said that the total cost of the rebrand was £22,429. The charity's latest accounts report an annual income of £11.2m.
“We led the process internally, leveraging the skills and expertise of our permanent salaried marketing and communications manager for project management and creative,”
“Her salary is not included in the rebrand budget, as it was budgeted for anyway.
“We bought in targeted support from a local agency to support with stakeholder engagement, name generation, design options and due diligence.
“Our marketing team is only small (two full-time staff members), so we outsourced some business-as-usual tasks to two part-time freelancers to make sure nothing slipped while our manager was leading this process.
“And we outsourced the IT systems transition. These costs are all included.”
Conn added that the charity deliberately ran down all Julian House marketing materials, to avoid wastage, so that costs of new pre-printed materials were not included in the rebrand budget.
