Office of Early Childhood and Youth

Welcome

The Shelby County Office of Early Childhood and Youth (OECY) coordinates programs, advises policymakers, and promotes community understanding that all children deserve to be healthy, safe, and nurtured.

Visit our Activities section to learn more about the many actions the Shelby County Office of Early Childhood and Youth is taking to improve the lives of our children.

From government initiatives and public awareness campaigns to advising policy and empowering youth, we are staying busy on behalf of our kids. Visit the Make a Difference section to explore opportunities to get involved!

Campaign Gains Momentum

Ask First logo

Putting the needs of our children front and center - those 256,737 youth under the age of 18 who call Memphis and Shelby County home - the Ask First campaign is both a challenge and a dialogue, one that asks local businesses, faith-based organizations, community agencies, and private citizens to incorporate the campaign’s central message – “Is it Good for the Children?” – into their daily agenda, their company policies and practices, their place of worship, their schools, and, ultimately, their own lives. In doing so, the Ask First campaign (modeled on similar campaigns in metro areas such as Kansas City) takes aim at some of the most important issues our children face – education, healthcare, violence prevention, freedom from abuse and neglect – by targeting the decision-making we all make and how those decisions ultimately impact our children and youth.

Crisis in the Crib

In recognition of National Infant Mortality Awareness Month, the Office of Minority Health and producer Tonya Lewis Lee released a documentary on Sept. 9, 2009, focusing on the issue of Infant Mortality in the African-American community. Much of the footage was shot during a trip to Memphis, in which Lee, spokeswoman for OMH's Healthy Baby Begins with You Campaign, worked with the All Babies Count Initiative, along with federal and local officials, students and residents to raise awareness about the issue of infant mortality.