g done with the girls at the home and the experiences they have at school.
Many of the girls come from violent backgrounds, and the home occasionally has serious violence problems that they have not found a way to control adequately.
The home will be needing some major repairs within the next five years: a new roof and a new furnace.
A similar home for African-American girls in a small Massachusetts city will be closing soon due to dwindling enrollment; this home could merge with St. LukeÆs.
There is a new mission in the district, and it has promised to refer girls to the home.
City developers are looking at the block that St. LukeÆs sits on, contemplating tearing down existing buildings to construct a downtown mall.
With rising costs, the annual budget is becoming inadequate and will soon have to be augmented by additional fundraising.
Fundraising efforts have been sporadic and intermittently successful.
Miss Marsden, the Director, explained the homeÆs strengths in some detail. She feels the home has done an excellent job of redirecting the girls that have come there. Although many of them have come from violent backgrounds and still have unresolved issues with violence, for the most part the girls have demonstrated excellent socialization at the home and have overcome many of their prior issues. Several of the girls had trouble with school before coming to St. LukeÆs, and after entering the stable environment and receiving counseling and encouragement, they no longer suffer from learning difficulties. Many of the girls were very shy, as abused children tend to be. They seemed to want to be invisible at first. However, when they were made to feel accepted and welcomed for their unique contribution to the activities, they began to relax and become more outgoing.
One of the prevalent problems many of the girls had trouble with was negative father figures. As a result, they distrusted all men, wer...