Message from our Executive Director Jenny Espinoza, MD For too long, our society has invested far more in reacting to harm than preventing it. We continue to spend billions on downstream systems like jails and prisons while underinvesting in children, families, and communities that need support long before crisis occurs. At Back to the Start, we believe people who have lived through these unbalanced systems understand these failures better than anyone. Through storytelling, p

Back to the Start’s legislative priorities are grounded in upstream investments and policies that ensure all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential. We support evidence-based preventative solutions that promote healthy families and communities, rather costly punitive approaches that perpetuate trauma and harm. After extensive analysis and stakeholder engagement, we will be focusing our legislative advocacy efforts on the following bills for 2026. Health &

We are announcing some exciting news! Back to the Start is expanding to a second site--California Medical Facility (CMF) in Vacaville! And Co-Founder, Brian Asey Gonsoulin, will be leading this effort as our inaugural Director of Prison Program Expansion We are thrilled to see the impact at of our work at San Quentin finally spreading to other facilities in California (and more to come). Stories and perspectives of the incarcerated deserve to be uplifted and are vital to resh