Reporting back: Family Friendly Spaces Sharing Conference

Powerful testimonials from Family-Friendly Program sponsors and participants

 

This October, we held our second Family Friendly Spaces (FFS) Sharing Conference to celebrate achievements from this FFS Program and to shape the future development of next year’s program.  Over 80 delegates from FFS participating factories and supporting brands took part in the conference - kindly hosted by Mattel at their Shenzhen meeting space – which featured presentations, lively panel discussions, and focus groups.

 

In presenting highlights from this year’s program, Anita Lo, Program Direction of IETP, explained how 2019 was our largest FFS program to date covering 30 factories in 5 provinces in China to support 1,100 children and their 1,200+ worker parents at factories. 

 

Conference delegates heard how following participation in this year’s program, 97% of workers reported a positive change in their children after attending FFS, and 62% of parents found their children were more open and confident. 80% factory managers found that the program stabilized their workforce by helping them reduce the turnover rate, echoing 90% of participating workers citing FFS a reason for them to continue working in the factory. 

 

FFS continue to drive lasting impacts at factories well beyond initial setup. All of the factories which participated in this year’s FFS program have confirmed that they plan to do so again next year, with some factories now in their second, third or fourth year of operating FFS.

 

Shuiyan Guo from the Centre for Child Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility (CCR CSR), our program implementation partner, shared assessment results from the 13 new factories demonstrating the program’s impact on children, working parents, and on worker-management relationships in detail. To see the full list of impacts yourself download our Family-Friendly Spaces 2019 Impacts and Achievements briefing.

 

Printing factory Golden Cup have been running the Family-Friendly Spaces program for 4 years now. They started with 26 children in 2016 and increased to 95 children this summer. At the conference they shared their top 3 recommendations for ensuring a successful program for those new to the program: well-planned promotion; detailed execution; and collecting feedback. To keep extending the benefits to more children each year, external promotion to educate others about the program and training to improve internal capacity are vital. 

 

Get involved in next year’s FFS program – opportunities now open!  

FFS offer multiple benefits for parent workers and their children. Participating factories can achieve valuable business benefits from running a FFS at their facility, and brands, retailers and licensors can sponsor FFS at their supplier factories as a demonstrable commitment to improving worker well-being in their supply chains.  

We encourage all buyers and factories to participate in our 2020 program – contact mark.robertson@ethicaltoyprogram.org to find out more.