Who We Are
WE GOT US NOW is the first of its kind.
More than 10 million children and young adults in the United States have experienced parental incarceration, making this one of the country’s largest invisible populations. More children are separated from a parent by incarceration than by foster care, military deployment, and deportation combined, yet there is still no national infrastructure designed to support them at scale.
This is not a niche social issue. It is a national child well-being issue hiding in plain sight.
WE GOT US NOW was built to close this gap. Founded on the lived experience of parental incarceration, we are a national nonprofit innovation hub and field catalyst powered by a team of directly impacted leaders. Together, we develop population-specific knowledge, institutional partnerships, research, leadership, and practical solutions to strengthen how systems recognize and respond to children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration, from cradle to career.
We address one of the greatest threats to child well-being in America by moving this issue into the systems, policies, practices, and investments that shape children’s lives.
Our vision is simple: Children and Young Adults Impacted by Parental Incarceration (CYAIPI) should never be invisible to the systems responsible for their well-being, opportunity, and future.
Our Mission
Our mission is to advance the well-being of children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration by building the infrastructure for a coordinated national response that strengthens how institutions support them from cradle to career.
Guided by our four guiding principles, ENGAGE, EDUCATE, ELEVATE, and EMPOWER, we are transforming how systems recognize, respond to, and improve outcomes for this population. Through public education, research, strategic partnerships, technical assistance, narrative change, leadership development, and policy influence, we develop practical solutions that help institutions strengthen their practices and accountability.
We are building a future where children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration have stronger pathways to social connection, education, opportunity, economic mobility, and long-term well-being.
Our Impact
Turning Awareness Into Action
WE GOT US NOW has a proven track record of turning awareness into action and ideas into impact.
Over eight years, WE GOT US NOW has transformed lived knowledge into developed expertise, and expertise into results: research contributions, institutional partnerships, national public education, and policy victories. Working alongside coalition partners, we have helped influence decisions, direct resources, and strengthen institutional understanding of children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration.
14+ States
Represented
across our nationwide network of 25 directly impacted leaders
95%
Leader Retention
Across the Leadership Network
6 Policies
Victories
Federal, State, and Local
500K+
Children & Families Reached
Reported public education and engagement
18
Research Contributions
Research and field evidence
$20.25M
Federal Program Appropriations
FY2021–FY2026; coalition policy influence
Listen to our WE GOT US NOW PODCAST
available on Apple Podcasts, iHeart RADIO, Spotify and AMAZON music.
Reshaping Public Awareness
WE GOT US NOW produces public awareness campaigns, educational programming, panels, podcasts, digital storytelling, and narrative-change initiatives that help shift how the country understands children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration.
One example is 10 Million Children Inspired, our educational series that engaged more than 12 higher education institutions, including Notre Dame, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, NYU, the University of Miami, Penn State, American University, Howard University, Arizona State University, Ohio State, and Missouri Western State.
Across this work, we share asset-based stories, build understanding, gather practice-first insights, and provide targeted guidance that helps partners respond more effectively.
Trusted Across Sectors
Our work is strengthened by trusted partners and supporters across healthcare, higher education, philanthropy, sports, media, technology, policy, research, and community engagement.
WE GOT US NOW intentionally builds relationships with institutions because these systems are already interacting with children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration, even when they may not recognize them.
Across healthcare, economic mobility, higher education, and technology, WE GOT US NOW brings population-specific knowledge into the institutions shaping their lives, helping strengthen how they recognize and respond to this population.
These partnerships are helping us build the cross-sector infrastructure needed to move from fragmented efforts toward a coordinated national response that improves outcomes for children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration, from cradle to career.
Leaders That Move Systems Forward
WE GOT US NOW’s leadership programming trains, develops, and upskills a nationwide network of directly impacted leaders through personal and professional development.
We elevate and empower our leaders to bring dual fluency: lived experience and professional expertise. This positions them as subject-matter experts who help us: train systems, shape narratives, co-create evidence, and build cross-sector collaborations.
Through this work, WE GOT US NOW has established lived expertise as an authoritative force in how systems understand and respond to children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration.
Leadership Outcomes
Across our leadership network:
95% leader retention rate
100% of leaders achieve healing-centered SMART goals
74% hold a college degree, including master’s or PhD-level education
These outcomes show what becomes possible when lived experience is developed into leadership, expertise, and systems change.
Actionists are directly impacted emerging leaders trained, developed, and empowered to become subject-matter experts advancing solutions across the systems that shape the lives of children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration.
BUILD Ambassadors are formerly incarcerated parents who use their lived experience as change agents and subject-matter experts, working in allyship with WE GOT US NOW Actionists to advance family connection, public education, research, policy, and systems change.
From Our Founder
Ebony Underwood
Founder / CEO, Social Entrepreneur, Thought Leader, Content Creator
This is not a monolithic issue.
Incarceration has moved through this country like a tsunami, separating families, destabilizing communities, and leaving millions of children to carry the invisible weight of that separation. I know this experience firsthand, after being separated from my father for 33 years while he was in federal prison.
WE GOT US NOW was created to recognize and center children and young adults who have experienced parental incarceration (CYAIPI), whether their parent is in a local jail, state prison, or federal correctional facility. Too often, our stories are unknown and untold, our trauma is misdiagnosed or overlooked, our futures are misrepresented, and our experiences are unheard by the institutions responsible for child and family well-being.
I believe that for as long as jails and prisons exist, there must be a durable ecosystem of support for this population, spanning every stage from cradle to career. WE GOT US NOW is the infrastructure built to carry that belief forward, an institution designed to outlast any single political moment, any single system, and any single generation.
As an innovation hub, we have spent the last 8 years creating and piloting models proven successful, rooted in lived expertise, public education, leadership development, strategic partnerships, research, and systems change.
As a field catalyst, we are building the infrastructure to mobilize partners, align resources, and bring cohesion to a field that is adopting this work faster than it is coordinating it, across healthcare, education, economic mobility, technology, policy, philanthropy, and community, because children impacted by parental incarceration do not live inside one system. Their lives are shaped by many.
Our commitment is both personal and generational. Future generations must never be forgotten, invisible, or left to navigate this journey alone. Our bold vision is to advance this work across all 50 states, so that every child and young adult impacted by parental incarceration is met with real pathways to education, digital access, economic opportunity, and social connection, the foundations of long-term well-being, from cradle to career.