Family Values

ESPECIALLY FOR CHILDREN Walton’s services provide crucial support for single-parent families.

Being a resident at the Walton Ridenour apartment community in Kennesaw, Ga. is like “living in a bubble,” says Robin Jackson, a single mother with a 16-year-old son. “They provide everything you need.”

Indeed, anyone would be impressed by the long litany of activities that Walton Communities provides at its multifamily developments in north suburban Atlanta. Besides onsite recreation and enrichment activities for children, the company employs an educational coordinator to oversee its partnership program with 22 area schools, including $150,000 in annual grants from a Walton foundation.

At least once a month, Walton sponsors trips for parents and children to cultural and recreational activities throughout the area, such as museums, theater, the zoo, botanical gardens, and aquarium. The company covers 90 percent of the costs. There are also summer camp scholarships, trips for teens who meet summer reading goals, and special events to recognize good report cards.

HANDS-ON MANAGER: Walton principal Barry Teague takes a turn reading to children at one of the company’s after-school Adventure Centers. Walton puts particular emphasis on support programs for single parents. Among the many offerings: Holiday parties for parents and their children, free seminars on topics like finances and car care, and a book-of-the-month club that stresses self-improvement issues. And when they spot a single parent with a special need, Walton’s managers are quick to link the person with area organizations that can help.

“The value they get for their rent dollar is all the more important for single parents,” says Walton Human Resources Director Pat Newman, who for ten years has directed Walton’s activities for this group.

Residents also don’t hesitate to go to the company with a problem. When Jackson lost her job in 2006, she sought help from Ben Teague, a Walton property manager who introduced her to the Atlanta Youth Project, which runs the children’s after-school program at Ridenour. Now, happily employed there, Jackson can’t say enough about the Walton community where she lives. “Nothing is ever done half-way here,” says Jackson. “For a single parent like me, it’s the total package.”

Other Walton residents concur. For two consecutive years, Maryland-based SatisFacts Research has given Walton Communities its national award for the highest level of resident satisfaction, based on surveys of families throughout Walton’s portfolio. Says SatisFacts President Doug Miller: “Walton is a company made up of people with a trait that cannot be taught—a heartfelt mindset of truly caring about people and wanting to please.”

LEADERSHIP LESSONS: LYNDA AUSBURN