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Doylestown Borough recognizes young designer of “safe space” logo

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An initiative to create a sign that businesses can display showing it is a place where all are welcome and safe, and the artist who designed the logo were recognized by Doylestown Borough Council Monday.

Issy Priano, a Central Bucks West High School sophomore, was presented with a certificate of appreciation for her design. It features a circle of colorful hands linked together. In the center is the borough’s seal. At the bottom, it reads Human Relations Commission.

“I’m really happy I got chosen,” said the 15-year-old. “I wanted all the hands connecting to show we’re all united.”

The “Window Cling” program is the work of the HRC, which began discussing it several years ago. The purpose, the commission states, is a simple one.

“It will serve as a sign of a safe place: where everyone participates equally with mutual respect, free from fear and discrimination.”

Noni West, the borough’s mayor, said she’s pleased the business community has been receptive to the idea.

“The HRC met with the Doylestown Merchants Association last week and presented the Cling program and the logo design,” the mayor said. “The program was embraced by all the businesses at the meeting which was an encouraging sign for the effort.”

The community’s human relations commission was established in 2010, with the mission to ensure the borough is one “where individuals and families can live, work, and visit without fear or concern.” Based on the premise that everyone is deserving of “dignity, respect and equality,” the HRC believes in protecting residents and visitors from discrimination and harassment.

The window cling furthers that effort. Business owners and their employees are asked to place the small sign in a window or on a door to foster “a community of fairness and inclusion.”

Doreen Stratton, a long-serving member of the HRC said, “The Cling campaign has arrived at a time when negative voices are attempting to limit the goal of the Human Relations Commission. Residents and visitors seeing this symbol on the doors or windows of our businesses and homes can be assured these are welcomed places of diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Editor’s Note: The author of this piece is a member of the Human Relations Commission.


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