Girl Scout Troop 1500 does all the usual things: Sells cookies, goes on camping trips, and earns merit badges. But once a month the troop, which is based in Austin, Texas, does something out of the ordinary: The girls take an hour-long trip to Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, so the troop members can visit their mothers behind bars.
The unusual program, Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, which exists in 30 states around the country, was the brainchild of a troop leader in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1992, who noticed a need for girls with mothers who had been jailed. The Girl Scouts reached out to the Department of Justice, which in 2003 began providing funding for that program, along with Girl Scouting in Detention Centers.
Christine Brongniart, the Girl Scouts program manager for the two efforts, agreed the program is "a far cry from cookies and crafts." She noted that all the programs from the Girl Scouts, since its origin 100 years ago, "come from a recognition of communal need."
Read More »from Girl Scouts Program Helps Girls with Mothers in Prison


