The Challenge: While access to free Pre-K education in Shelby County has grown over the past decade, hundreds of children still end up on waitlists every year. First 8 Memphis, an early childhood organization, was working to advocate for strategic investment where there aren’t enough Pre-K seats, but they needed clear evidence to make the case undeniable to local decisionmakers. 

The Work: To help make the case, the Data Midsouth team at Innovate Memphis built an interactive Pre-K Capacity report that lets users see Census tracts where 3- and 4-year-olds far outnumber available seats. Policymakers can drill down by zip code or council district to see exactly where investment was needed. The data revealed a stark reality: Many pockets of Shelby County had a critical shortage of Pre-K seats relative to the number of children who needed them, often in lower-income neighborhoods. 

The Result: First 8 Memphis used Data Midsouth’s interactive report in meetings with local policymakers, translating these geographic gaps into a concrete ask to invest in 230 new Pre-K seats at 13 sites. In the 2025-26 school year, 230 more children received access to free, high-quality Pre-K, an experience proven to increase academic readiness and achievement for longer-term success. 

What Partners Are Saying: 

“Innovate Memphis were exceptional collaborators from start to finish. The final product surpassed our original vision. The interactive, publicly accessible map has made community outreach seamless. We’ve been able to share it with partners like A Better Whitehaven and Porter-Leath so they can focus on neighborhood-level engagement, while we leverage it for system-level planning and to strategically direct critical resources to areas of greatest need.”
-Jackson McDonald, First 8 Memphis Data Manager

“The Innovate team provided key insights into the information available and best processes for analyzing the data to ensure that our decision making as a program was data-driven and meeting the specific needs of our community. Based on the outcomes of this assessment, First 8 Memphis successfully launched the Pre-K for All campaign, increasing local funding for public Pre-K and expanding our partnership by 230 additional seats and 13 new sites, located in communities identified as “high priority” through the Innovate partnership.”
-Joanna Harrison, First 8 Memphis Program Director

This is what happens when local organizations have access to the right data at the right time.