Coworking - Community Daycare I work U play

We’ve created Lausanne’s first solidarity-based coworking space and daycare center. Our goal? To enable parents to work on their professional projects while their children are cared for by volunteers of all ages. Our hope? To be accessible to everyone by offering our services at a very low cost or for free (for parents who cannot pay) and by setting up shop right in the heart of the city (Place de la Gare).

We have observed that the arrival of children is almost always correlated with women in Switzerland either stopping work or reducing their working hours (Source: 2021 Report on Families, Federal Statistical Office). This leads to poverty and isolation for many mothers. The association has therefore sought to address one of the main obstacles to mothers’ entry into the workforce: the lack of or insufficient childcare for preschool-aged children. To do this, we provide parents with a coworking space that includes childcare, all at a low cost. Our project benefits all residents of the city of Lausanne and even those in the surrounding area. In fact, (i) the parents who are coworking members and have used our services come from all over the city. We also help (ii) change the dynamic of the Place de la Gare by bringing in a diverse population—younger people (thanks to the children) as well as older adults (thanks to our retired volunteers who work in the childcare area as part of an intergenerational support initiative).

A coworking space/daycare center has therefore been established right in the heart of Lausanne (Place de la Gare). It is open three half-days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday), from 8:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Parents have access to: (i) a coworking space with 5 desks for working while seated or standing, a large screen, Wi-Fi, and a printer, as well as a meeting room and a phone booth where they can step away to take phone calls, for example. (ii) a childcare area, where children are cared for by volunteers. These volunteers are carefully selected (through multiple interviews and required documentation such as identification, insurance, a clean criminal record, etc.). The childcare area is designed to be “intergenerational” (with volunteers of all ages), and a rotation system is organized among coworking parents to combat isolation. We ask parents to contribute financially (25 CHF per half-day), or not, if they are unable to do so.

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Our offices are located at Place de la Gare 10, 1003 Lausanne. We operate out of the offices of the Powerhouse association, whose mission is to promote “empowerment” by supporting various projects. The project involves all neighborhoods in Lausanne and the surrounding area, as parents do not live exclusively near the train station.

Nonprofit association I work U play