In This Issue:
* GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY
* Upcoming Dates & Events

GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY
By Dianne Harman

Cities and private groups partnering to benefit communities – sound impossible? Believe me, when you see it happen you realize that projects don’t have to get bogged down in bureaucratic red tape –alternatives do exist!

I sit on the Board of Directors for the Council on Aging and recently witnessed firsthand what can happen when a group decides to give back to the community. The South Coast Apartment Association is the chapter of the California Apartment Association which serves landlords throughout Orange and southern Los Angeles counties who own or manage nearly 90,000 rental housing units.

Five years ago the Association decided to start an annual Charity Day during which their members would coordinate a “makeover” or “rehabilitation project” for a worthwhile cause. For three years they worked on the Southwest Community Center, a United Way Agency located in Santa Ana which offers meals and other services to low income participants. In 2004 the group completed a makeover of a rental house in Santa Ana owned by the OC Community Housing Corporation and occupied by a large, low-income family.

In 2005 the Association focused on the Michael E. Rodgers Seniors’ Center in Huntington Beach. A relationship was developed with the SCAA by a member of the Huntington Beach City Council through sheer happenstance at a meeting both were attending. The Community Services Department formed a partnership with the SCAA to help in the exterior renovation of the Center.

Late last fall, in the space of just one week, unpaid volunteers from the SCAA completely transformed the Senior Center. The building was over 50 years old and had been converted to a Senior Center in 1974. It needed increased visibility from the street, painting, landscaping and a number of other things. The center was painted, a 20’ x 20’ patio cover was built with a large bbq, building improvements were made, the roof was repaired, security was checked and inside shutters in the kitchen were installed, window screens were replaced and repaired, overgrown plantings were removed and new landscaping was put in.

The members of the Apartment Association have multiple talents that they use in their own businesses such as roofing, general contracting, landscaping, paving, painting as well as the association member companies which donated their services and products, items such as paint and wood, etc.

Now it looks like a new building. The City of Huntington Beach simply didn’t have the budget for the changes. So it really was a win-win situation for everyone!

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Sincerely,