HART volunteers, students, family members and supporters gathered at Gibbons Park in Carmichael in early June for a Bar-B-Q celebration of the 2020-21 school year. During the year, adult “buddies” followed COVID-19 guidelines to share lunch with students most every week. Their goal is to provide supportive, nurturing relationships with youngsters who often don’t have permanent housing. In the past two years, HART has been training mentors who also must be certified by the San Juan Unified School District. Mentors typically commit to meeting with mainly middle school students for an hour or more per week. Their goal is to improve a student’s self-concept, social skills, learning capacity and life goals. They also seek to support families’ overall competence, self-sufficiency and child-rearing skills. Carmichael HART plans to expand the Student Buddy Program next fall. The school district also is interested in expanding the program to other HART communities. For more information, see https://carmichaelhart.org/student-buddy-program/.