Family Voices Toolkit

Engagement

A toolkit for involving parents of young children in family housing planning and design.

Locations: London, Dublin, Chicago

Client: Van Leer Foundation

Collaborators: Ardsone, Patrizia, Jonathan Rose,

ECDC, Bridges, Fabrix, HUB

Images: Madeleine Waller, Amber Marie Green

Year: 2024

Family Voices Toolkit

Family Voices is a simple toolkit designed to help you involve parents and carers with children aged 5 and under in the planning, design and management of family housing.

Practical tools to include families with young children, building better homes and communities for all

Visit toolkit webpage

Van Leer are committed to aligning their investments with their mission, which is to make cities better places for very young children and their parents and care givers. To do this they have started working closely with their investment partners, each of whom is responsible for delivering family housing.

Recognising that parents and carers of very young children are routinely overlooked, Van Leer brought in ZCD Architects to lead on the development of a toolkit, which would provide the support needed to offer this group quality community engagement.

The toolkit helps Van Leer’s investment partners meet Van Leer’s aims as well as their own social value and ESG objectives. It has a focus on housing and sets out all the steps needed to include parents and care givers.

It can also act as a community engagement toolkit for other groups, as the techniques are transferable and the format and learnings can be applied.

It is so important for families with young children to feel heard. To feel that their voices are valued and matter.

Dawn Mottram

Jonathan Rose Companies

The Family Voices toolkit is an important addition to the industry. Placing people at the heart of the design and building of homes is core to what we do, and vital to creating lasting positive impact.