Introducing DAHLIA Living

What grows in the garden, so lovely and rare?
Roses and Dahlias and people grow there."  – A Gardener’s Diary

-Today, officially, Helping Hands for the Disabled’s public identity is changing to DAHLIA Living. Differently Abled Home & Life Innovative Alternatives.

We began the odyssey of a name change quite some time ago. It was important to our management team and board of directors that our name better reflect our evolution away from the stigmatized word “disabled.” This endeavor has taken us on a thoughtful and introspective journey, as it was equally important to us that we honor our history, while embracing a more contemporary and accurate image.

Why DAHLIA Living?
Initially, we gravitated to the idea of a garden as it is a place where living things are nourished and grow. We arrived at a dahlia for its vast diversity which incorporates our quest to promote the idea that the people we serve are valuable contributors to society in their own unique way – differently-abled rather than disabled. It highlights that we are more than just residential facilities, we are advocates and initiators. We are a home and family – not an institution.

​And, it is a tribute to our founder, Barbara Barger, an avid gardener, who had the Vision, Championed our cause, blazed the Trail to give our clients a Halcyonic (meaning peaceful and idyllic) life.

What sealed the deal for a dahlia over another flower was its meaning. According to flowermeaning.com, a dahlia signifies:

• Staying graceful under pressure, especially in challenging situations
• Drawing upon inner strength to succeed
• Traveling and making a major life change in a positive way
• Standing out from the crowd and following your own unique path
• Staying kind despite being tested by certain life events
• Committing to another person or a certain ideal

This is us. This is what we represent. The name felt meant to be. And, so, now we are re-launching ourselves to the world.

The Changes You Will See
We are using this name change as an opportunity to refresh our public persona. We engaged a fabulous designer to craft our new beautiful new logo. Thank you Prism Creative! We’ve updated our website – note the new domain DAHLIALiving.org (our emails have changed as well, but our old HHFTD.org ones will forward for the foreseeable future). You’ll see a brand new look to the Spotlight and on our social media pages. Thank you Pixie Fish Marketing!

What isn’t changing is our core values and heartfelt commitment to the amazing people we serve. And, even the Helping Hands name is not going away. We’re simply updating our public “brand,” if you will, to better reflect how we, and society, have evolved over our 4+ decades of service.

With all of this, we hope that your commitment to our organization will flourish and grow as well.
Please, if you have questions about this change, contact any of our management team or board members. It is vitally important to us that we retain your support.

​So, thank you for all you do for our organization and please join us in celebrating this next step on our journey…DAHLIA Living.