Family Friends is a nationwide outreach program that enlists the support of senior volunteers in providing nurturing help to children and their parents. Homeless Children is a branch of the program in which volunteers are matched to homeless families with young children, and, during biweekly visits to homeless shelters, become surrogate grandparents to the children. The volunteers serve as tutors and role models to the children and as advocates and sources of information to the families. Each local Family Friends/Homeless Children project involves a coalition of agencies. Each project has: (1) a project director, who is a trained professional with experience with at-risk families; (2) an advisory committee of community leaders, professionals, and specialists; (3) a local sponsoring agency that recruits and trains volunteers, provides education and recreation, works with public schools, serves as a liaison with health projects for the homeless, and provides information to families; and (4) volunteers, who are screened and trained. Establishing a Family Friends/Homeless Children program involves recruiting and training volunteers, selecting families to participate in the program, fundraising, and promoting and evaluating the program. (BC)