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, 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 challenge hiding in plain sight.
WE GOT US NOW was built to close this gap. Founded and led by directly impacted daughters and sons, we build partnerships, content, research, leaders, tools and models needed to help systems recognize this population, understand what they need, and respond 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 an ecosystem of support that follows them from cradle to career.
Guided by our four principles, ENGAGE, EDUCATE, ELEVATE, and EMPOWER, we are transforming how systems recognize, understand, and respond to children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration. We do this through public education, strategic partnerships, technical assistance, research, narrative change, leadership development, policy influence, and practical solutions that help institutions act with greater clarity, and accountability.
We are building a future where children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration are met with 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.
Through public education, strategic partnerships, our leadership model, and systems-change work, we help move this issue from awareness to action while strengthening our role as a catalyst for the field.
30K+
Students Reached
through educational programming
6 Policies
Informed
at federal, state, and local levels
40K+
Podcast and Digital Audience Reach
through storytelling, public education, and digital engagement
14+ States
Represented
across our nationwide network of directly impacted leaders
Podcast & Digital
Storytelling
Partners Engaged
Through the highly acclaimed WE GOT US NOW Podcast and digital storytelling, we expand public understanding of parental incarceration’s impact while elevating asset-based narratives from directly impacted leaders, families, and field partners.
Cross-Sector
Partners Engaged
across healthcare, higher education, philanthropy, sports, media, technology, research and policy
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 already interact with children and young people impacted by parental incarceration, even when they may not recognize them.
Through lived expertise and subject-matter guidance, we help institutions better understand this population, recognize the need, and identify practical ways to respond.
These partnerships are helping us build toward the cross-sector infrastructure needed to move the field from fragmented efforts toward a stronger ecosystem of support for children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration.
Leadership
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, 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.
I believe that for as long as jails and prisons exist, there must be a lasting ecosystem of support for children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration, from cradle to career.
WE GOT US NOW is building that future. As an innovation hub, we create and test models of excellence rooted in public education, strategic partnerships, leadership development, lived expertise, research, and systems change. We use these models to show what works and help institutions better understand how to support children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration. As a field catalyst, we work to transform systems by mobilizing partners, aligning resources, and moving the field from fragmented efforts toward coordinated action. Our goal is to ensure this issue receives the attention, investment, and long-term response it has always deserved.
Our commitment is both personal and generational. Future generations must never be forgotten, misrepresented, or left to navigate this journey alone. Our bold vision is to use WE GOT US NOW’s deep understanding of the problems, systems, and communities that impact this population to advance multi-sector work across all 50 states, moving children and young adults with incarcerated parents toward pathways of well-being, education, economic opportunity, and social connection as 21st-century citizens.