Children need guidance because growing up can be hard, and Warren County Juvenile Detention Center administrator Kathy Holden is doing all she can to get the juveniles housed at the center on the right track.

“I’m not here just to do a job,” Holden said. “I’m here to change their life, hopefully.”

This week Holden has had a woman from the community speak to the juveniles every day, including a beauty consultant that spoke about the proper way to style hair and a representative from the Health Department that spoke about diseases.

“I’m trying to get the community involved. Instead of everyone sitting around talking about the youth, I’m trying my best to bring solutions to the epidemic regarding youth crime,” Holden said.

Each summer for the past three years she has brought speakers into the detention center to enlighten the children. Next month there will be a week of male speakers scheduled to talk to the youth, including a firefighter and someone from the Attorney General’s office.

“If I can change one kid, I’m good,” Holden said. “I’ve succeeded.”

Wednesday’s speaker was Bonnie Moore Shelton, a substitute teacher and a certified volunteer chaplain at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl.

She told them of her experiences and people she has known who took the wrong path and ended up in less than desirable situations.

“Everything I shared were true stories,” Shelton said.

She encouraged the juveniles to earn respect, know right and wrong, be honest, be a leader, make the right decisions and to dress and act right.

“My desire is to do what I can to make a difference in the lives of these young people, and that’s the ones inside and out [of the detention center],” Shelton said.

Holden is also passionate about spending time with and listening to children in an attempt to save their lives. It doesn’t take money to reach out, she said, it just takes time and attention.

“My ultimate goal is to start a shadowing program,” Holden said. “We have to reach these kids in the fifth grade.”

She wants to start reaching out to children through school guidance councilors during their fifth grade year to prevent them from every going down the wrong path. Children with behavior problems or even those who are just shy need someone to check on them from time to time, keep them positive and be a role model, she said.

“Think it, dream it, believe it, practice it, and it will become reality,” Holden said she tells the youth.

Everyday she makes it a point to talk with the juveniles in the detention center individually, and she hopes the community will join her by getting involved with the youth to impact the entire community.