Gateways to Better Living Gets ‘Fresh, New Look’

CANFIELD, Ohio – Gateways to Better Living has a new look, but the agency’s commitment to Mahoning Valley individuals with disabilities remains.

“We have decided that as an organization, Gateways needs a fresh, new look,” said Karl L. Ware, executive director and CEO. “Over the last 52 years of doing services, we’ve expanded from the original ideas of the persons who started the organization with just residential programming.”

Gateways serves Mahoning and Trumbull county residents and operates 13 licensed intermediate care facilities, waiver facilities – or homes rented by individuals – and three day programs.

There are 113 individuals in Gateways’ intermediate care facilities, 56 in waiver facilities and 220 individuals in its day programs.

The rebrand, including a new more colorful logo, was unveiled Wednesday at a launch event at Waypoint 4180.

“Since the pandemic, many organizations are starting to revive what it is they’re doing to just refine their look, their services, so we thought it was time for Gateways to do the same,” Ware said.

He described the organization as the home away from home that people with loved ones with developmental disabilities are looking for. 

“We can’t do what you can do at home, but we can make that life as rewarding as if the individual was at home,” the CEO said.

And that’s not changing. 

“We are not changing our service component,” Ware said. “We’re not changing any of our values or what it is we do or how we provide services to the individual. We’re just simply reviving the look, making it a bit more vibrant, more seen.”

Two members of the board of directors, Ralph Zerbonia and Steve Snyder, board president, talked about the important role employees play in Gateways’ work.

“I’ve not met anyone who wasn’t striving for excellence in the Gateways family,” Zerbonia said. 

The organization puts resources toward what’s best for clients to keep them safe and secure and allow their relatives to know that their loved one is being taken care of, he said.

“Our employees make that happen,” Zerbonia said. “They do it every single day, and they do it with smiles on their faces.”

Gateways’ new logo blends navy blue, violet and fuschia, curved into a heart at one end to form a G.

“The heart kind of brings it all together with the compassionate care that we want to provide to all of our individuals,” said Kristie Murphy, Gateways’ community engagement director.

The colors lend significance too.

“The navy blue is the professionalism and stability, and that is our main color,” Murphy said. “And then each of the segments are for different departments.”

The light blue is the intermediate care facilities, representing calmness and serenity. Violet indicates creativity and spirituality, representing the waiver program, and magenta conveys vibrancy, passion and innovation, symbolizing the day programs, she said.   

“As a whole, it’s who we are as Gateways, from our individuals to our employees to our management team, all the way up to our board of directors,” Murphy said. “We want to be fresh; we want to be innovative. But we want to keep our traditions alive at the same time and honor the people that came before us and the people that will come after us.”

Pictured at top: Karl L. Ware, executive director and CEO of Gateways to Better Living.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.