Our purpose

If you ask participants why they chose to join Back to the Start and share personal and often painful reflections from the time in their life when they were most vulnerable, you will hear the same answer—they hope their stories will “make a difference so that others won’t have to go through the same thing.” After having been incarcerated and disempowered for years or sometimes decades, participants are discovering that even behind bars their stories are important and have power. Back to the Start gives them a platform through storytelling to be part of the solution in addressing the root causes of health and systemic inequities impacting their community.