33 stringently selected volunteer housebound grannies and grandpas in Chicago run a telephone advice service for latch-key kids, from 3pm to 6pm daily. Between 300 to 500 calls per month are handled, covering subjects such as attack from bullies and girls who think they are pregnant.
The service uses a commercial answering service and a well-publicised phone number, with the calls transferred though to an on-duty volunteer at home, without re-dialling.
Grandparents keep a daily log of the calls and evaluate questions and answers at the end of each day to a clinical psychologist who is a staff member.
Topics are discussed at three conferences per year for the participating grandparents. They are also put through a training programme, with written materials to be learned and pro-cedures to be practised in simulated calls.
To preserve anonymity, only first names are used on the phone, with participants discouraged from giving addresses.
The programme has been running for more than two years and is now going national.