National Network for Equitable Library Service

Releasing Hope was born out of the first book, Arresting Hope, which describes participatory health research and the experience of women incarcerated inside a British Columbian provincial correctional centre from 2005 to 2007. Readers of Arresting Hope, moved by the stories written by incarcerated women, asked, 'What happened next?' And, 'How are the women doing, now that they are released from prison?' Starting in 2007, women who were released from prison formed a network called Women in2 Healing because they wished to continue participatory health research in the community. Their overarching research question was, 'How can we improve the health of women in prison and following their release?' Releasing Hope describes the journeys of formerly incarcerated women and their encounters with the barriers (financial, emotional, familial, systemic) that they confronted during their reintegration in the community. Releasing Hope touches on the stories of individual women and the learning from participatory health research that made visible their lives, their hopes, their dreams and fears.