Family-Friendly Spaces 2023 Updates

2023 is the 8th year we have ran our Family-Friendly Spaces (FFS) program. This year, with the COVID-19 situation under control in China, we are proud to have 33 factories participating in Family-Friendly Spaces welcoming nearly 1,440 children.

Our Family-Friendly Spaces program provides secure and well-equipped spaces at factories for children to learn and play while their parents work. The program promotes child-friendly employment practices, supports the United Nations SDGs: 3, 4, 5, 10 & 17 and allows parents to work free from childcare burden.

The Family-Friendly Spaces program enables factories to bring positive impacts to working parents and their children, while at the same time, creating measurable business benefits for the factories.

We will regularly update this page and our social media, Twitter & Linkedin pages, with images, videos & stories from the spaces.

Weekly Updates:

Congratulations once again to this year’s competition winners!

Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s sharing conference and a special thank you to Mr. Alvin Lai, the General Manager of Heshan Astros Printing Ltd., as well as his employees for their all kinds of support, including the provision of the conference venue, helping with the smooth running of the event.

Week 2: Teaching Activities & Excursions

Stepping into the second week of the Family-Friendly Spaces program, each participating factory hosted a wide variety of teaching activities and excursions, which enabled the children to acquire new knowledge, gain hobbies, and develop a closer relationship with their parents.

The Family-Friendly Spaces teachers made use of the LEGO gifts for the six bricks teaching method, some of our spaces also taught the children how to sow seeds, which the children will water and tend to throughout the summer. All of these activities help the children learn in different ways, developing their cognitive skills, patience and imagination.

Lots of fun was had outside of the spaces too, some spaces arranged experiences including a family party at McDonald’s, pottery classes and even a visit to the local fire station where the children were able to dress up as firemen and learn about fire safety. The family visit to McDonald’s enabled the parents and children to spend even more time together, enjoying food and drinks over their lunch break and creating precious moments and lasting memories.

All of these activities and excursions help to create a magical and memorable summer, not just for the participating children, but for their working parents too. Thank you to all of the program leaders and teachers for putting together such a fantastic week for the program participants!

Week 1: Opening Ceremony of the Family-Friendly Spaces Program

Each factory holds an opening ceremony to mark the program's beginning. This July, all 33 factories participating in the program put on great ceremonies sharing what they had in store for the children this summer. The Opening Ceremonies are a wonderful opportunity for the parents to learn more about the program, meet the teachers and delight in watching their children receive piles of gifts from the program’s sponsors.

The Opening Ceremonies begin with opening speeches from the Family-Friendly Spaces Program Factory Leaders, ICTI Ethical Toy Program representatives and program sponsors. There are also lively performances from the participating children from singing, dancing to acting.  

The children were then handed their gifts from this year’s sponsors, from toy cars to dolls, books, plush toys and puzzles the children happily shared and played with them together.

We would like to sincerely thank all of this year’s program sponsors, including Crayola, Disney, DK, Hallmark, Hape, LEGO®, Macy's, Mattel, Moose Toys, Spin Master, The Marketing Store, and TÜV Rheinland.