17 Coworking - Community Daycare

Number of votes: 7,478

1. The Project in a Nutshell
We’ve created Lausanne’s first coworking space and community-based 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).

2. The Project’s
Objective We have observed that, in Switzerland, the arrival of children is almost always correlated with women ceasing to 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 barriers 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 combined with childcare, all at a low cost. Our project benefits all residents of the city of Lausanne and even those in the surrounding areas. 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—including 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).

3. The Project in Detail
A coworking space/daycare center has therefore been created right in the heart of Lausanne (Place de la Gare). It is open for three half-days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday), from 8:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Parents have access to: (i) a coworking space with five desks for working while seated or standing, a large screen, Wi-Fi, and a printer; a meeting room; and a phone booth where they can step away to make phone calls, for example. (ii) a childcare area, where children are cared for by volunteers. These volunteers are carefully selected (through multiple interviews and verification of requirements such as identification documents, 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 to skip the contribution if they are unable to do so.

4. The amount requested to carry out the project

CHF 4,000.00

• Rent assistance: 4,000 CHF

5.
Downtown Neighborhood(s)

6. The name of your organization Nonprofit
organization I work U play