The Adliswil Family Centre must stay.

Open Letter to the City Council (Grosser Gemeinderat) of Adliswil

On 3 June 2026, the city council (Grosser Gemeinderat) cut the Family Centre "due to budget savings". The recurring annual running costs of around CHF 109,000 from 2027 onwards were rejected. Without this money, the Family Centre will close at the end of 2026. As a result, families in Adliswil lose their most important point of contact in the early years of their children's lives. During the same session, it was decided that parents will have to pay 20 percent more for childcare in school after-school centres in the future.

Family is the fundamental cornerstone of our society. It is the first place of socialisation where core values, norms, and social behaviour are passed on. Families must be worth at least CHF 109,000 to Adliswil. Let us not allow cuts to fall once again on families and their children.

The decision was extremely close. A majority in the council wanted to preserve the centre and rejected the cut by 17 votes to 15. However, in the subsequent vote on the funding of the centre, two votes were missing for the required absolute majority of 19 council members due to several members being absent for work reasons.

A family-friendly city invests where its future begins: in children and their families. Numerous studies show that early support for families has a preventive effect and can reduce social, health, and academic challenges in the long term. Investments in early childhood strengthen not only the families concerned but society as a whole. Early support acts preventatively and can minimise subsequent social, health, and academic problems. Investments in early childhood are therefore not only sensible in terms of family and social policy, but also economically necessary. The required annual running costs of around CHF 109,000 are modest given their benefit to families, children, and the community. They enable a service that promotes encounter, integration, prevention, and equal opportunities.

We recognise that the city must set priorities for its spending. This makes it all the more important that services with a proven social benefit are preserved. The Family Centre is one of them. We therefore call on the town council and the Grosser Gemeinderat to reconsider the funding of the Family Centre and to find a sustainable solution for its continued existence.