Safety is always a big concern for homeowners, and nowadays, even with a decreasing crime and cities prioritizing security. In HOAs and condos, your board of directors and property managers must always prioritize safety for residents and their families. In the summer it’s even more important since kids tend to have more freedom and parents may have trouble balancing kids and work.  

Here, we have five ideas to improve kids’ safety within your HOA or condo not just for this summer, but every day. 

1 – Mutual support

Support and help is a core benefit of living in a community, so help and be helped! 

Parents in your HOA will be more relaxed that a neighbor, a friend or a member of staff are close by and will keep an eye on their children’s wellbeing. 

This support can take different forms and make life more relaxed, easier and a lot more fun for the kids. And that’s what summer’s all about! 

Some examples of community help and support are: 

• Carpooling to clubs, parties, soccer or baseball matches. 
• Babysitter networks inside the community. You can advertise babysitting in the social network in Neighbors, or the board could put together a document with all the babysitters in the area.
• Lemonade stands – let the kids earn their own money in a safe place

All these activities can easily and quickly be coordinated when there open channels of communication. And knowing that anyone inside the community can be quickly contacted can bring peace of mind to a worried parent whose teenager isn’t picking up the phone! Neighbors helps with this, by providing easy communication to any resident, concierge or staff. This gives all association residents different ways to stay in touch, whenever they need it. 

2 – CCTV cameras

The association security staff often have big areas to cover. So having a working CCTV system can make a big difference in improving safety standards and helping them do their job efficiently. CCTV cameras should be installed on key safety points, such as the HOA main entrance, all main roads, in children’s playgrounds, and amenities entry/exit points.    

When installing CCTV, privacy is a big issue. Because of this, the board of the community association must also consider privacy. You should work to establish a middle ground where surveillance doesn’t compromise residents’ private lives. The board can start by making sure that no CCTV cameras can see into residents’ homes and making clear to all members of the association when and where cameras are being installed. 

The benefits of surveillance-based security can also be of value for the community in the clubhouse or other amenities and to residents. These days there’s a growing supply of these services and products. Some of them are: 

• Canary: This is a one-device solution for home surveillance. It has different modes that adapt to homeowners’ needs and privacy settings. This gives the ability to monitor their home from work or abroad, or check on their kids when they arrive from school. It also has a privacy mode that deactivates the camera and all microphones, a crucial feature for maintaining privacy inside your home. 
• Wyze: Similar to Canary, but with a wider range of interconnecting products such as their own LED light bulb, plugs, etc. that can be controlled via Alexa and Google Assistant, giving homeowners more control of their surroundings while keeping a watchful eye on their property.
• Foscam: A home security company with a wide range of product designs to fit every space at home, from the living room, garage, corridor or the baby room. It saves all recordings in the cloud and also has an app available for Apple or Samsung phones to control the devices. 

3 – Keeping track of visitors

As most boards of directors will agree, keeping track of visitors is important for communal safety. It creates a sense of security for every member of the community as well as a head start for any potential investigations (both internal or external). Keeping track and having a complete report of who came and went can be a game-changer. The board of directors needs to consider the possibility of something bad happening inside their community, and take steps to avoid this. Better be safe than sorry, right?  

But let’s not stop at entrance control. Neighbors provides each unit owner with total control over their visits. It does this by giving them the ability to grant access to specific people for a specific period of time, or indefinitely. Residents can set specific schedules and days for a visit to be allowed into the community (for example, their children’s’ piano teacher) as well as having a notification sent to them when a visitor arrives. Each new visit is registered and the details of the visitor, time of arrival and vehicle. You can also include pictures and other information. 

Neighbors also offers you a visitor report. You can download this at any time, this shows you who came and went for a time period you decide. 

4 – Plan summer fun!

Summer comes and goes so fast, it’s important that the whole family stops to enjoy it. Families and their kids could enjoy summer without ever leaving the community with these activities. Boards of directors can help by organizing activities such as: 

• Setting up playdates for the little ones
• Book Clubs, Painting Clubs, you name it, your condo could have it! 
• It’s always great to get the whole family involved with weekend summer activities such as face painting, pool parties, or barbecues.
• Shoot for the stars and have an in-HOA camp

Planning is key for these activities. It ensures that all kids taking part will have fun and be safe!  It allows homeowners and their families to schedule some time to get to know their neighbors in the community! Neighbors provides the ability to create events in a shared calendar, from board meetings to Book Club meetups for kids and grown-ups.  Send a reminder out to everyone and post on your personal website.

5 – Keep up to date with your service requests

Walking around the community association, someone might notice potential safety hazards for kids, like garbage or broken glass on the playground, a loose electrical wire or a faulty/ broken swing set. All this needs to be fixed and quickly! But if it’s difficult to report problems, or if it takes ages to fix people might become demotivated and not report problems. 

This is serious, and it can lead to lawsuits! Every single request must be taken care of ASAP. One way of doing this is by downloading the Neigbrs by Vinteum app! We have a Service Request feature where residents can easily and quickly let the property manager know about any problems. They can attach pictures to show staff or the proerty manager the problem. The property manager can ask questions and let them know how long it will take to fix by answering the request within the system. When the request is completed they can close it or re-open it anything else needs to be done.

Make sure your HOA enjoy the summer in safely, surrounded by family, friends and loved ones! Provide the residents with the peace of mind and tranquility they deserve with Neigbrs by Vinteum! Visit Vinteum.io, create your free account and learn more about Neigbrs by Vinteum today!