Community-Based Participatory Research with Women in Prison: The Women’s Words/Women’s Worlds Peer Mentoring Program (2024) (SpringerBriefs in Anthropology)

By: Susan Dewey and Brittany VandeBerg and Julie Tennant-Caine

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Synopsis: This innovative work tells the story of a unique partnership between a state prison administration and a team of incarcerated women, prison administrators, researchers, artists, and students known as The WoW Collective due to their joint efforts in developing a peer mentoring program called “Women’s Words/Women’s Worlds (WoW).” Using the example of WoW, the book provides a guide to doing community-based participatory research (CBPR) with women in prison that takes a collaborative—rather than the typically adversarial—approach to working together toward the goal of transformative social change. This book provides a ground-breaking example of how incarcerated women, prison administrators, researchers, and artists successfully worked together on a community-based project that led to meaningful results in the form of a peer mentoring program designed by women in prison for women in prison. Remaining closely attuned to the ethical dimensions of doing CBPR in a highly structured prison environment, this book provides inspiration to CBPR practitioners who seek to work within the criminal justice system to create real and meaningful change for the better. Co-authored by two criminologists, a senior prison administrator, and the unique collective known as WoW, this book provides both a clear step-by-step CBPR guide and a visionary approach to working with criminal justice practitioners.