Wings of Hope History

History of Our Name

WINGS stands for “We Inspire New Growth after Suicide loss”. The name was created in one of our management committee’s early meetings in 2008. Firstly, name concepts were developed and an online survey was taken, including male and female participants, to make sure that our potential name options were appropriate. Name options were presented to the group for discussion.

Wendy McWilliam was very influential in developing the acronym for our organisation. But on the whole, the Association is forever grateful to all of our volunteers who assisted with the online survey, to the respondents, to Leigh for compiling the data, Lesley for keeping us on track, and the committee members running the ‘name choosing’ meeting. The organisation name is very meaningful and highly symbolic of our journey since losing our loved ones.

History of Our Logo

A strong symbol of hope and inspiration has been created for WINGS of Hope. Thank you to Maris Cuane for sharing his graphic design skills, resources and time to create the WINGS of Hope logo.

The colours of purple and turquoise represent postvention. The number of butterflies (5) represents the founding members and their lost loved ones, named Tiani, Helen, Victoria, Vernon and Lorraine. The butterflies signify our founding members' growth, or metamorphosis, through loss.

As the design evolved and changed so did the dynamics of our Committee. Each member learned a great deal about the strengths that each of us brings to the Association and how together, we can make a difference to those bereaved by suicide. Developing the logo was an important stage in our personal journey and that of the organisation coming together to create a symbol of the range of issues we aim to address in our self harm prevention activities.