Yellow Brick Roads works to improve the lives of children of incarcerated parents nationwide from ages 5 – 17, by assisting them on a day to day basis with some of their less tangible but equally pressing needs, such as a place where they can talk about their situation, have contact with their parents and help with their homework just to name a few. The organization will use its resources to create local chapters around the country where children can seek help, and advocate for these childrfen by conveying to society the problems that they face, how they can be resolved or diminished and by changing society’s perceptions of these group of children.

Yellow Brick Roads was established in 2007 by Francine Lucas-Sinclair, who experienced parental incarceration herself, and is familiar with many of the issues typical of these children. Her father Frank Lucas “American Gangster” and her mother Julie Lucas “Eva Oquendo” in the movie American Gangster 2007, were both in prison for most of her childhood and adolescence. Francine saw the need for a strong national organization that addressed the issues of children of incarcerated parents directly but at the same time sensibly by using the children’s point of view as a blueprint to follow.