What we do...
The Shelby County Office of Early Childhood & Youth coordinates programs, advises policymakers, and promotes community understanding that all children deserve to be healthy, safe, and nurtured.
• As an Office that doesn’t provide any direct services, we demonstrate Shelby County Government’s commitment to children and families and attract dollars from outside the community for strategic placement of those dollars.
• We align funding received with the strategies outlined in the Memphis Fast Forward’s People First! Human Capital Development Plan, a plan adopted by Mayors Mark H. Luttrell and A C Wharton.
• We advocate for, coordinate, and work to ensure the quality, accountability, and success of informal and formal resources for all children and their families most in need.
• We manage the use of child impact statements throughout Shelby County government by encouraging County departments to complete child impact assessments in association with resolutions and ordinances, in order to mainstream consideration of child and family well-being into the legislative process.
This office has leveraged $396,795 this year of County-dependent (in fiscal year 2011) funding to bring in millions of state and federal dollars, in serving as the single point of coordination within government for all of these programs working toward building a ‘system-of-care’ for children and their families who usually fall through the cracks. We have shown that with a small, lean budget, much can be accomplished in leveraging for far greater amounts, in which the funding benefits those programs serving clients directly. The funding it generates goes directly to the community. By serving as a point of coordination within County government for all of these agencies and the programs they administer, services aren’t fragmented, disorganized, nor disconnected… View facts (PDF).