Throughout all aspects of Vesta’s operations, quality is more important than quantity. Quality housing means more than shelter; it means making a commitment to residents to provide a means for those residents to solve problems and improve their lives.
Vesta has a long history of offering social and educational activities to our residents. Vesta also understands that many of our residents require assistance contacting, coordinating and implementing social services for their families and for themselves. Our management staff is available to meet with and to assist residents in finding these services.
In addition, Vesta maintains the security and livability of its communities in part through a careful tenant selection process, approving tenants who have a record of responsibility for their homes and community.
Read more about our Quality of Life initiatives
Learning Centers
An example of helping our residents better themselves is Vesta’s Learning Centers. In 2000, as a part of a major renovation and turnaround of Rainbow Terrace Apartments, Vesta decided to provide the 484 families a state of the art learning center. Not only does the Center have the best in computer equipment, it also has full time teachers to work with children and adults, and the opportunity for the residents to earn new computers and high speed internet access for their own apartments.
View the video about the Rainbow Terrace Learning Center.
To accomplish this, we teamed up with a local community college and the Cleveland Board of Education. The children’s educational programs and curriculum are coordinated with the local schools. The adult's educational programs include basic education, GED preparation, and job skills training. The community college administers the programs. Funds for the teachers were obtained through the Ohio Department of Education’s 21st Century Learning Center Grant Program.
Social Service Programs
We regularly collaborate with local social service providers to offer such services as:
- Daycare centers
- Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts troops, or similar organizations
- Health and nutrition clinics
- Community Gardens
- Sports teams for resident children and fitness activities
- Parenting skills
- After school mentoring
- Teen outreach
- Job counseling
- Personal finance counseling
- Drug and alcohol prevention.
The underlying goal is to provide our residents with the best possible service to maximize the likelihood of a family breaking the cycle of poverty, increasing independence so that residents can become more self sufficient in their daily lives.
Summer Meal Program
We have also had great success in our summer meals program at some properties. Every summer we partner with local non-profit food banks and provide breakfast, lunch, or an afternoon snack to the children who live at these properties.
Social Events
To create a true apartment community, we believe that it is important for residents to interact and socialize with each other at organized social events. To that end, we provide space for residents to hold regularly scheduled resident association meetings. We also plan, coordinate, and pay for a series of social activities throughout the year to which all residents will be invited to participate.
These social activities can include holiday celebrations, summer ice cream socials, family picnic events, and field trips. During the winter holiday season we work with local organizations such as “Toys for Tots” to help make sure that every resident’s child receives a gift during the holiday season. With resident participation, we work hard to create and maintain a sense of community at each of our properties.
Security
It is paramount that our residents feel safe in their apartments and within the property grounds. We help deter unlawful and inappropriate activities within the apartment community. We work closely with local law enforcement agencies on resident and non-resident issues.
