"The unveiling of the Child Impact Statement Reporting System launches a new era in how we make decisions impacting the most vulnerable members of our community," said Mayor Wharton. "This is truly a momentous achievement and I applaud all those involved in developing such a valuable and vital resource tool."

The Child Impact Statement Reporting System is designed to enhance critical thinking and promote the development of effective policies impacting children and families. The online tool guides users through a series of report-building questions and answers while providing immediate access to a broad-spectrum of research data that document historical trends and reflect conditions related to child and family issues. The CIS Reporting System fuses investigative research with policy development to improve the quality, costs and distributional effects of decisions impacting children in Shelby County.

"Thanks to the tools offered in the Child Impact Statement Reporting System, we as a government have never been in a better position to address the issues facing the children and families in our county," remarked Commissioner Carpenter. 

Shelby County is home to over 20 percent of Tennessee's child population, more than the state's other major metro areas.  A significant number of issues that come before the Shelby County Board of Commissioners have a direct or indirect impact on the well-being of children and youth.  Over time, it became increasingly apparent to Mayor Wharton and his administration that policy planners needed and required an effective method to evaluate these issues against the emotional, physical, mental and financial needs of children and families.  Policymakers needed a Child Impact Statement.

The charge for a Child Impact Statement started in the Mayor's office and was championed through a resolution sponsored by Commissioners Carpenter and George Flynn. The resolution was approved in February 2008 and simply stated the necessity to "develop a mechanism for the production of Child Impact Statements to accompany selected resolutions and issues . . ."

Through an RFP process, the University of Memphis Center for Multimedia Arts was awarded the contract to develop the mechanism.  CMA collaborated with the Shelby County Office of Early Childhood and Youth, the Center for Urban Child Policy and The Urban Child Institute to define the needs of decision-makers.  The result is the CIS Reporting System - a revolutionary, online approach to policy creation, the only one of its kind in the country.

"We've changed the notion of Child Impact Statements as end-stage screening tools to the concept of them as frameworks for decision making, informing the legislative process from the beginning through the end," said Mike Schmidt, director of the Center for Multimedia Arts.