Imagine an eight-year-old who is growing up in Memphis. What might he experience on a daily basis?

He may be one of the more than 70% of third graders in Memphis-Shelby County Schools who do not read at grade level and are at risk of repeating.

A big reason why he is struggling in school might be that he has a chronic health condition and no way to access care.

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Maybe one of his classmates is struggling because her school does not offer afterschool enrichment programming while her parents work, or cannot do so because of infrastructure shortfalls due to deferred maintenance costs.

She has likely experienced at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), as more than half of Tennessee residents have reported falling into that category.

Do her parents earn a living wage? If not, is it because they do not have access to reliable transportation to get a better job?

Do these students have enough nutritious food to eat, or do they live in one of the many food deserts in the most food-insecure city in the country?

How can we, as civic leaders, alleviate some of the pressures placed upon teachers and guidance counselors under the current system so that they can spend more time teaching and helping these children dream and plan for the future?

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There’s no shortage of Memphis ZIP codes where tens of thousands of children are experiencing the same roadblocks to success.

As city council members, county commissioners and school board members, we try every day to remedy this with high-quality solutions, such as literacy coaching, afterschool programming, community health centers, trauma-informed responses or food assistance, but there are still disconnects between residents and services.

A big reason for this is our current state of siloed decision-making and investments, which must stop.

If this year’s budget season taught us anything, it’s that we have to work better together.

No, we are not talking about consolidated government. We are talking about something much more effective: collaboration and coordination.

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We should not be scrambling to balance the books after federal relief funds, which we knew were temporary, dry up.

We should be making hard decisions together rather than leaving one body dealing with critical issues like rebuilding Regional One, funding MATA or rebuilding schools and missing the bigger fiscal picture.

We should be building a new form of collaboration that formalizes our strategic priorities across governing bodies, leverages the insights and expertise of non-governmental entities to deliver results, and aligns our annual budget processes alongside private investments.

Imagine how much more impactful we can be in the lives of residents if we coordinate more than $3.75 billion across our budgets.

Over the past three years, several members of our legislative bodies, mayors and administrative staff from the city, county and school district have worked with local leaders, nonprofits, and the business community to develop the More for Memphis plan.

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It is a comprehensive social and economic mobility improvement plan that utilizes effective public-policy solutions and both private and public funding to improve the lives of children and families in Memphis and Shelby County.

Importantly, this plan spells out a collaborative governance model by which the city, county and school district will collectively deploy resources in the most efficient and impactful ways possible, aligned to clear and effective outcomes that point to improvement in the lives of our residents.

Our commitment to change is unwavering. We have pledged to come together to create a plan for collaboration and coordination.

Crucially, we will ensure that this plan is transparent and accountable to the public, incorporating feedback at every step.

This way, the residents of Memphis and Shelby County can witness the progress we’re making.

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It’s a continuous process of evaluation and adjustment, all in the service of creating safe, thriving communities where our children can look forward to a brighter future.

The decisions we were forced to make in this year’s budget process should not be how we do business; the magnitude of the sacrifices we experienced should never happen again.

We must work, as we have been elected, to ensure that every penny of public funding is utilized for the most efficient and effective purposes possible.

Accomplishing this requires that we govern proactively to determine investments in solutions for our constituents — solutions that demand the input of all forms of government in Shelby County.

We all deserve that much.