“Parenting Service Map in Fukutsu City Kodomo no Kuni” Receives Kids Design Award!

The Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, is engaged in a joint research project with Fukutsu City on design with public sectors. Together with the Fukutsu City Support Center for the Families with Small Children, we focused on parenting support as one of the public services and developed the “Parenting Service Map in Fukutsu City Kodomo no Kuni” through co-design between citizens and city officials using design methods. It helps guardians who are raising their children. This service map won the Kids Design Award in 2021.

The “Parenting Service Map in Fukutsu City Kodomo no Kuni” is a tool for guardians raising children for the first time. There are many things that they do not know about their first pregnancy and parenting. Many public services related to children and parenting are available, but users do not know how to take action. Therefore, Kyushu University, Aalto University, and Fukutsu City collaborated with citizens to design a service map for the users.

Raising a child is not just about having fun. Guardians have many worries, big and small, such as “I do not know how to ask for help with a trivial problem…” or “What should I do if I’m about to abuse my child?” However, guardians do not know to what extent they can consult with the public sectors or whom they can ask for. On the other hand, city officials who provide parenting support service have the issue of not knowing what kind of services is available in the public sectors as a whole or what is available outside their area of responsibility.

Therefore, to solve the issues of both users and providers of parenting support, we conducted a participatory design workshop and gathered information from various stakeholders involved. The uniqueness of this service map is that we designed it as a guide map that is not for introducing about ideal parenting but to solve concerns of the guardians and stakeholders. The design reflects the voices of the stakeholders, such as “parenting journeys to find services by the age of the child,” “graphics that do not depict typical family images,” “detailed examples of trivial consultations,” and “name stickers that enable to communicate with the professionals in charge.”

Approximately 10,000 copies of the “Parenting Service Map in Fukutsu City Kodomo no Kuni” are published annually and distributed together with the Maternal and Child Health Handbook to all citizens who give birth in Fukutsu City. At the time of distribution, public health nurses, midwives, and other professionals in charge will hand out the service map while explaining how to read it and use the services. At that time, a sticker with the person’s name in charge is attached to the service map to design communication in which the consultant’s name and face can be seen.

These service maps are available at public facilities, libraries, local child-rearing salons, community centers, train stations, and shopping malls. It can also be downloaded from the Fukutsu City official website. It is available at general counters to promote a comprehensive understanding of parenting services not only among service users but also among city officials who are providers.

As shown in this service map, similar services are provided by many municipalities throughout Japan. It is possible to use the service map method we designed this time and expand it to other municipalities, so if you are interested, please contact us.

Direction: Yasuyuki Hirai (Kyushu University, Faculty of Design)
Planning, production, and editing: Moe Shimomura (Kyushu University, Faculty of Design), Fukutsu City Support Center for the Families with Small Children
Planning, research advisory, and workshop management: Kari-Hans Kommonen (Aalto University)
Production cooperation: Risa Nakashima (SKY, Ltd.), Mikiko Kai, Maika Doi (Kyushu University, Graduate School of Design)
Design: Yuki Hirano (Oeuflab)
Workshop cooperation: Fukutsu City, Fukutsu Citizens