The family workshop in Matosinhos (Greater Porto) this past June really showed the potential of this format for engaging families on planning and mobility topics. We learned so much about process and content that this post will only be able to scratch the surface. Still, we want to share a few of our insights, and a few photos.

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On content:

• Most of the parents (and some of the children) present had already actively thought about their daily mobility choices, some even moving countries in search of particular conditions for their ideal choice of daily mobility.
• Though a relatively privileged group, several of the families present felt bound to certain mobility choices based on distance, time, and safety conditions.
• Many different nationalities were present in this group, which seemed to steer discussions on culture chiefly towards experiences in various countries, which have a series of cultural traditions that are also strongly related to local environmental and planning conditions in those countries. Nevertheless, non-spatial cultures did also come up, especially during the post-it exercise.
• Children frequently using the car to go to school seemed to have a positive association with this practice.
• Walking, cycling, and the use of public transport were all considered very desirable for this group, for parents as well as children, although the car was also used by many of them, several also for their daily trip to school.

On process:

• The children participants seemed to enjoy the hands-on part, but were quickly bored with the discussion parts (possibly also due to language, as some spoke better English while other spoke better Portuguese, so the discussions were in English or multilingual and may have bored some children further due to this), which they mostly spent at the kid’s corner with toys and games we had set up, playing together with other children.
• The kid’s corner we made with toys worked very well, though it would still be better to have professional support for engaging smaller children (under 5 or 6) when they tire of the main activities, so that the parents are more free to keep participating.
• Most participants explicitly noted liking the co-creative, artistic format of the workshop, though some did also highlight that they also enjoy more verbal discussion-based workshops. This speaks for the complementarity of these types of workshops in participatory settings.
• The families present – all parents with their children, who were all under 10 years old – did seem to bond well on the topic, finding ways to reflect on their mobility choices together.

A huge thank you to all participants! It was a truly enlightening and fun experience.