Editor’s note

A group of volunteers gathered at the Family Service Center on Vine Street to be trained for the COMPASS after-school program for homeless kids that starts this week. There were some wise suggestions from program director Molly Berendt about the best ways to love children from unstable homes these days, including be there for them every week, keep physical contact to a minimum, don’t always believe them when they say they don’t have any homework and work with them on their reading. Then volunteers were asked what they’d do in hypothetical situations, like “Phil refuses to eat his supper” and “Katie crawled under the table and won’t come out.” Threatening to withhold dessert was a popular remedy if talking it out doesn’t work. Forming a relationship so kids want to please you was the long-term solution. We’ll let you know how it goes. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher