In Changing Lives in Appalachia, twenty-seven graduates of the New Opportunity School for Women share their courage and lives, many relating intimate details of growing up in Appalachia facing physical and sexual abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, and marriage and children at a young age. Included also is a history of the school's twenty-five years and a description of the curriculum of this innovative program that has successfully changed lives of Appalachian women in Kentucky as well as North Carolina.