Nearly 40% of the homeless are families, usually women with two or more small children. Many of the women themselves have been traumatized, often as victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse; many grew up in highly stressed homes; many became mothers as young teenagers, as had their own mothers. So parenting skills and understanding of child development are woefully inadequate, and so from generation to generation, cycles of abuse and poor parenting continue. How can this be stopped? One possible model is the COMPASS (Comprehensive Parenting Skills and Support) Program of PRA (est. 1991, inc. 1997), which was conceived in 2000, in response to a volunteer and Board member’s personal observation of horrendous parenting practices in shelters. Developed under personal donations and foundation grants, it was introduced to two Waltham sites – Sandra’s and Hestia House – in 2002 (52 mothers, 100 children) and a third –Olivia’s House –in 2003 (total 70 mothers and 130 children at a time, twice that annually). The Program focuses on behavior management, child development, and therapeutic exploration of the mothers’ own histories through art–an element developed together with the Boston Institute of Art Therapy. Weekly seminars on parenting, expressive therapy and nurturing activities, and play groups with mothers and children together, help everyone. This is a pilot project, so your support will enable strategically valuable learning, as well as provide direct benefit to some of our neediest families.