A new name for a Fort Worth institution

What’s in a name?

According to the board of directors of a longtime Fort Worth agency, apparently a lot.

The YWCA of Fort Worth & Tarrant County is no more.

The organization that has been helping women and families out of poverty for more than a century announced on Friday that it has been renamed.

It’s now the Center for Transforming Lives.

Indeed, transforming lives has long been the mission of the newly named nonprofit, and in that sense its title is quite fitting.

Since its founding in 1907, the organization has helped tens of thousands of women and children who have fallen upon difficult times, providing everything from shelter and food to childcare, Head Start and other early child development classes, as well as financial empowerment programs.

Last year alone the YWCA helped more than 2,000 women and families.

But despite the organization’s history of service to the community, the YWCA has suffered from a branding problem.

Carol Klocek, chief executive director of the former YWCA, told the Star-Telegram’s Diane Smith that surveys conducted by the nonprofit indicated that people didn’t really know what the YWCA did.

It was often confused with the YMCA, which is known by many as a youth development and recreational center.

And while it has been operating as an independent nonprofit, its affiliation with the national YWCA cost $36,000 in dues each year, but offered little in the way of benefits and nothing in the way of financial support.

In short, leaders felt the name was interfering with the mission.

The Center for Transforming Lives does offer a more accurate description of what the organization does. And if that helps the nonprofit to improve fundraising and reach more clients — its leaders say they want to serve 10,000 women, children and families by 2023 — then the change was worth making.

Still, it’s hard not to be a bit wistful about the now-former YWCA.

While the center certainly is not turning its back on the past, one gets the sense that some of its storied history will be lost in the adoption of a new public brand.

Based on its track record and the credibility the YWCA had built in the Fort Worth community, its ambiguous moniker didn’t appear to be a stumbling block.

And it will take time and effort to rebrand an organization that has already served so many.

Regardless of title, we expect the center to continue its fine work.

This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 5:27 PM with the headline "A new name for a Fort Worth institution."