“I want to be one of the people to say, ‘I changed this, I made this better”

"Your past does not dictate what you should be able to do when you walk out of these doors,” Robyn Murphy, managing partner for JRM Consultancy, told the group of 19 girls, ages 13 to 17, seated in front of her at the Western Maryland Children’s Center in Hagerstown. They were surrounded by other staff, mostly female. The girls who reside at the only female juvenile detention facility were identifiable not only by their age, but by the matching white blouses they all wore. Many of them adorned their hair with a purple ribbon, joining in the Women’s History Month celebration that brought five successful women to their facility – a mayor, an entrepreneur, three business owners, and the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Juvenile Services. Murphy’s message, and the message of the four other women at the event, resonated with the three teenage girls we spoke to. They each have big dreams for their future.