Members of the Mansfield/Ontario/Richland County Health Department announced Monday that the agency has changed its name to Richland Public Health and has adopted a new logo.
“We had and do appreciate the very long name of the Mansfield/Ontario/Richland County Health Department…but as public health continues to be dynamic, we’re taking the opportunity to change, and we feel that Richland Public Health defines us today as to who we are: We are Richland. We are Public. And we are Health,” stated Martin Tremmel, the agency’s health commissioner.
Reed Richmond, health educator with Richland Public Health, was part of the committee that created the logo and tagline. He stated, “The stylized RPH logo illustrates the three initials of Richland Public Health. The logo’s clean lines and soft curves offer a fresh design with a rich feel.”
He explained that the color green was chosen for the logo color because of its “long-standing connection with Richland County public health and health in general…Green is a color representing vitality, renewal and restoration, concentration, compassion and calm. It is the perfect color for promoting health and protecting our environment.”
About the tag line, “Prevent. Promote. Protect.,” he noted that it “embraces everything that public health accomplishes and communicates it in a simple way that identifies Richland Public Health as both a guardian and responder.”
A press release stated that the Board of Health, the mayors of Mansfield and Ontario, and the District Advisory Council (DAC) have discussed the name and logo change since November, 2013. The DAC approved the changes in its meeting on March 27, 2014.
The name change follows a trend for Public Health Departments across the nation in streamlining the identity and recognition of the role public health plays in their communities. A committee at Richland Public Health worked on and then proposed the new logo.
That committee, representing employees of each division at the health department, chose the final design, colors, font and tag line for the logo and name change.
Dr. Janice Reed, board chair, noted that originally, the agency was known simply as the Health Department from 1910-1987. In 1987, the agency then became known as the Mansfield-Richland County Health Department when Mansfield City Government and the Richland County District Advisory Council merged separate boards of health and health districts.
Then in 2001, the Village of Ontario became a city and the agency’s name was changed again to the Mansfield/Ontario/Richland County Health Department—the longest public health department name in the state of Ohio, Reed said.
“Embedded in the new name is the mission of public health and as it’s delivered to all communities throughout Richland County. The mission is this: To assess, maintain, and improve the health and safety of the environment and community through quality public health services,” stated Reed.
The announcement of the agency’s new name and logo coincides with the kickoff of Public Health week. For more information on Public Health Week, go here. http://www.richlandhealth.org/learning-center/public-health-week
About the tag line, “Prevent. Promote. Protect.,” Reed Richmond noted that it “embraces everything that public health accomplishes and communicates it in a simple way that identifies Richland Public Health as both a guardian and responder.”
The announcement of the agency’s new name and logo coincides with the kickoff of Public Health week. For more information on Public Health Week, go here.
