Closure planned for December 2026

The Adliswil Family Centre must stay.

On 3 June 2026 the city council (Grosser Gemeinderat) rejected further funding. At the end of 2026, Adliswil will lose its open meeting place for parents with small children. We will not accept this.

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CHF 109,000 annual running costs rejected

< 6 francs per resident and year

only 6 months until closure

What happened

Since 2024, the Family Centre at Isengrundstrasse 7 has been the open meeting place for parents with children aged 0 to 4. Here, no one is left alone with their questions, worries and sleepless nights.

What it offers, five days a week, run by the GFZ foundation:

Free drop-in café
Counselling for mothers and fathers
Baby massage
Movement room for toddlers
Father-and-child meet-up
«Zeppelin Familien startklar»: support from birth

On 3 June 2026, the city council rejected the recurring annual running costs of around CHF 109,000 from 2027 onwards. Without this money, the centre must close at the end of 2026. The decision passed by the narrowest of margins. It only came about because three members of the SP group were absent from the session. At the same time, parents will have to pay 20 percent more for childcare in day nurseries and after-school care. Many young families thus lose their most important point of contact in the earliest years.

First music lessons, then childcare, now the Family Centre.

The savings hit the very youngest.

Our three demands

We call on the city council and the Grosser Gemeinderat of Adliswil to:

Priority 1 1

Secure funding for the next 5 years

The Family Centre needs planning certainty. We demand binding funding for at least five years, so that services, staff and trust are not put at risk year after year.

Priority 2 2

From pilot project to permanent institution

The Family Centre should move out of its temporary pilot status into a proper, ongoing service mandate of the city, as a recognised and lasting part of Adliswil’s family and early-years policy.

Priority 3 3

Stop the cuts to families and education

First the red pen on basic music education in grades 1 and 2, now the closure of the Family Centre. We demand a halt to further cuts affecting children, families and early education. That includes a real say for those affected before decisions are made about their services.

Why the Family Centre is worth it

A family centre is not a luxury. It is the place where new parents no longer feel alone, where children learn the language through play, where neighbours become a network that holds.

Some dismiss a family centre as if it were merely about drinking a glass of cordial with the children, something you could just as well do at home. A bottle of cordial, when diluted, makes more than ten litres; a single glass costs a few centimes. That is how little a place for young families seems to be worth to some. But connection, advice and early support cannot be had at the price of cordial.

And the money is there. The city had budgeted for a deficit of 4.2 million francs. In the end it posted a surplus of 8.6 million. The feared deficit was also the justification for raising taxes: the tax rate went up from 102 to 104 percent, after an original proposal of as much as 106. On the very same evening, the same parliament approved a loan to renovate the football changing rooms by the indoor pool. Saving on a family service that costs CHF 109,000 is therefore not a question of money, but of priorities.

CHF 109,000 is a small amount for Adliswil. The loss of a meeting place for young families is not. Let us not allow the savings to fall, of all places, on the youngest.