Meet Our Spring Intern: Esther Melton by Juan Moreno Haines This spring, Back to the Start welcomed Esther Melton as an intern supporting our narrative and policy work focused on disrupting the cradle-to-prison pipeline. Esther is a fourth-year medical student from the Bay Area currently studying at University of California, San Francisco. She previously earned degrees in African American Studies and Human Biology from Stanford University, where she explored the intersections

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

We are excited to share Edwin E. Chavez, one of our distinguished program coleads and tireless social justice advocates, wrote an provocative and heart wrenching Op-Ed that was published in the LA Times.