Bringing Baltimore Girls and Their Moms Together

In keeping with this year’s World Thinking Day theme “Making an Impact,” the girls of the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars Program committed to make an impact in their community by collecting socks for homeless families.

The girls who are part of the GSCM Beyond Bars Program enjoy many of the same experiences as other Girl Scouts – the only difference is they meet in a prison.

This year GSCM celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the national-acclaimed Beyond Bars Program founded in Maryland in 1992 through a partnership with the National Institute for Justice and the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women.

On March 1, 2018, the BBC documented a troop meeting at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women, filming the interaction between the Girl Scouts and their incarcerated mothers.

During this troop meeting, the girls brainstormed ways to make an impact in their communities. They sorted the more than 400 pairs of socks they collected for the homeless and delivered them to Grassroots Day Resource Center, an emergency shelter for families and single adult women near the MCIW.

Every month the girls meet twice at MCIW and at other times go camping, tour colleges, sell cookies, and participate in many other activities like any other Girl Scout troop.

Currently, Girl Scouts Beyond Bars is serving 32 girls and 20 mothers. Over the past 25 years, more than 400 girls have been given the support they need as they cope with the loss of a parent and the isolation that comes from the stigma of their mothers’ involvement in the criminal justice system.

Your commitment to Girl Scouts Beyond Bars helps us ensure that ALL girls in central Maryland have the opportunity to be a G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader)™.

Links:

• BBC coverage of the Beyond Bars Program

Girl Scouts of Central Maryland spent the end of 2017 celebrating the 25th anniversary of our Beyond Bars Program.

On November 4, supporters, legislators, and friends gathered to commemorate the silver anniversary and to watch the preimere of Tanya Spann Roche's stunning film documenting the program and the interaction between mothers and daughters at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women. Author and activist Kemba Smith presented a keynote address that spoke both to the Girl Scouts in attendance and to those who have never experienced the pain of incarceration.

We were also fortunate to present a scholarship to Justice, a Beyond Bars program graduate and current student at Salisbury University.

Due to the press coverage of the event, we received donations from all around the world. Over $70,000 dollars was raised in the last few months to support Beyond Bars. We are grateful for your support.

As the rate of female incarceration continues to skyrocket, the need for the supportive environment that the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars Program provides girls and mothers will only grow. Thank you for ensuring that we can continue to provide a safe place for daughters of incarcerated mothers to grow and thrive.

To view the video, visit our GlobalGiving project page.

Links:

• The Baltimore Sun reports on GSBB
• The Washington Post article about GSBB
• Los Angeles Times coverage about GSBB