In honor of Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) Awareness Month, the Koinonia community came together to create a mural to help raise IDD awareness. The project was led by Creative Arts Coordinator Stephen Dargaj and Koinonia Enterprises Manager Matt Barr.

Throughout the month of March, staff and individuals had the opportunity to make their mark on the project by placing their painted handprints on the paper. The colors were taken from Koinonia’s new branding and logo.

Here is what Dargaj and Barr had to say about the project:

“This past March marked Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) Awareness Month. Here at Koinonia, we aimed to create a communication platform that enables all people, regardless of their artistic abilities, to connect with and inform society that the acronym, IDD, does not solely define a person that lives with a disability.

To do such, we decided to take the new Koinonia logo, the population we support, and the artistic abilities of our team to create a mural celebrating the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities. The mural is a collaboration between staff and the people we serve where everyone chose a color of the new Koinonia brand to represent themselves.

You will notice there is no way to truly differentiate the handprints of providers and of the people we serve. This symbolism showcases that we are all the same in many ways. Like that of our new logo and its intertwined fingers, forming a tapestry of a heart, the hands within this mural are intertwined as well to show inclusivity. You will also notice the acronym for Intellectual Developmental Disabilities, IDD, is altered to ‘Inspiring, Driven, and Dreamer.’ Here at Koinonia, we don’t just provide services for individuals with disabilities. We also support people that are an inspiration, that are driven, that are dreamers. This mural is a way to show the intentional effort of inclusion and accessibility without discrimination.”