Making Aachen more family-friendly

On 3 December 2024, the Citizens‘ Assembly for a family-friendly Aachen presented its recommendations to the Aachen Citizens’ Forum. The participants provided ten answers to the question ‘How can Aachen become more attractive for families with children?’.
For example, the mini-public recommends relieving the burden on families with children through a central “childcare exchange” and providing targeted support to make it easier to combine family and career and to create a supportive social environment.
Promoting social interaction
A project called ‘Socially Active’ aims to promote social interaction and values such as tolerance and respect by giving ‘children and young people the opportunity to develop new interests and strengthen social skills. Through a project week at schools and a diverse range of activities with co-operation partners, the participants are to gain insights into various areas of interest and build a stable social network in order to contribute to social integration and violence prevention in the long term.’
The assembly also proposes offering families a digital helper that makes it easier for them to claim support and benefits - from identifying entitlements to submitting applications. A centralised, multilingual online service is to be created for this purpose, which also includes a digital appointment system and interpreting service.
Facilitating the application process
Applying for benefits is also to be made easier. The application process should be supplemented by more online options and made more accessible. The Citizens' Assembly recommends “the introduction of a digital citizens” account in which data and documents can be stored centrally. For procedures over which the city has no influence, it is recommended that a separate (digital) service be developed to support citizens in submitting applications - similar to tax software that fills out forms automatically. This service should be multilingual and free of charge.
Another idea is to create a themed playground in the city centre. This should appeal to families and offer them a child-friendly opportunity to combine visits to the city centre with fun and games. ‘With a variety of play and sports activities for different age groups and seasonal highlights such as water games in summer and an ice rink in winter, the playground will create an inviting meeting place for families. This revitalises the city centre in the long term, promotes social encounters and the integration of families from different backgrounds and generations,‘ says the Citizens’ Assembly.
Set up a youth culture centre
The assembly members also propose the establishment of a central youth culture centre, ’which does not yet exist in this form and which serves young people of all genders as a safe and consumption-free meeting place. It should create a welcoming atmosphere with comfortable furnishings and a flexible programme that young people can help shape themselves.
All residents of Aachen, but especially families, should be able to find offers of interest to them more easily thanks to an interactive and clearly organised website.
Personal contacts for families
The Citizens' Assembly for Family Friendliness would like families with children to be provided with personal contacts who make home visits. ‘They act as a kind of guide by passing on information to the respective families in a targeted, understandable and personalised way. The personal contacts accompany the families in the long term, across different phases of life, for example when they start school or during other transitions in life,‘ explain the participants in the citizens’ report.
The unsealing and targeted communal planting of designated areas, for example in parks, schoolyards, kindergartens and on (residual) areas close to homes by families is intended to promote an attractive, healthy and lively living environment, particularly in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
Making families more mobile
Finally, the mini-public recommends the introduction of community buses. In Aachen, many families with children live in the suburbs. The mobility needs of families are very diverse. ‘Today, many parents, relatives and family friends spend time with drop-off and pick-up services. For families with children, time capacities in everyday life are very limited anyway and supportive mobility services are desirable,’ the participants note.
With the use of community buses to improve connections to the outer districts, the city of Aachen is to offer a temporary mobility service for families with children so that they can be mobile within Aachen even without their own car. This service should lead to a regular mobility service for families with children.
‘A strong signal’
‘Family friendliness means quality of life. The recommendations of the Citizens‘ Assembly are a strong sign of how important it is to put families at the centre and support them,’ said Mayor Sibylle Keupen, pleased with the citizens' suggestions.
There were words of thanks from the Citizens‘ Forum for the Citizens’ Assembly. ‘The result is impressive,’ said Julie Göths (SPD). The proposals were ‘really great’ and would be supported by the CDU if they could be financed, said Marianne Conradt. Her parliamentary group colleague Herbert Hilgers spoke optimistically of an ‘exciting process, at the end of which it must emerge that your civic commitment has paid off’. For Karin Schmitt-Promny (Green Party), the topic of how Aachen can become more attractive for families with children is ‘one of the most important tasks for the future’.
Examine recommendations in real-world laboratories
In the opinion of the Citizens' Assembly, many recommendations could be implemented in selected real-world laboratories in the short term and their impact tested. Real-world laboratories make it possible to observe the actual impact of the measures in everyday life and at the same time obtain valuable feedback from the stakeholders involved.
‘The time-limited test phase also makes it possible to quickly determine whether adjustments are necessary or whether the measures are working as intended. This offers the opportunity to collect direct feedback and data on the feasibility and effectiveness of the recommendations. There are a variety of offers and events that are ideal for this purpose, such as the Children's Day,‘ says the citizens’ report.
Interim utilisations could also be tested as part of the real-world laboratories. For example, public spaces that are to be remodelled in the future could be used in an interim state and thus tested in advance. This could involve using a previously unused space as a playground, meeting zone or cultural area to see how the public reacts to its use.
Topic decided by citizens' forum
The topic of the Citizens‘ Assembly was decided on 4 June 2024 by the Citizens’ Forum as the responsible committee of the City Council. 61 topics had previously been proposed by residents of the city. In an online vote, 33 topics had achieved the necessary support of at least 125 votes for further consideration.
The Citizens‘ Assembly monitoring committee selected five finalists from the proposals for discussion in the Citizens’ Forum. The committee is made up of members of the first Citizens‘ Assembly held in 2023, the City Council, the 'Citizens” Assembly for Aachen’ initiative and administrative staff from the Citizens' Dialogue and Administrative Management department. The five selected topics were discussed in public at the Citizens' Forum and debated with those present.
3,500 people invited
In July 2024, 3,500 representative and randomly selected people aged 16 and over were invited to take part in the Citizens' Assembly. The Citizens‘ Secretariat, which supports the Citizens’ Assembly in organisational matters from within the administration, drew 56 members from the responses of those drawn. However, only 44 of these turned up for the first meeting. In the end, only 28 participants took part the working sessions. Young people under the age of 16 and children were not heard as members of families.
The Aachen Citizens' Assembly took place over a period of five days. The starting point was a kick-off event with a city walk on 7 September 2024, followed by three working days on 14, 21 and 28 September. The assembly members received an expense allowance of 50 euros per meeting day.
Limited number of recommendations
Following the experience of the first Citizens‘ Assembly “Attractive shopping destination Aachen” with 75 suggestions from citizens, the number of recommendations for the second mini-publicy was deliberately limited in advance to enable the administration to process them effectively.
The City Council discussed the Citizens' Assembly's recommendations on 5 February 2025. The city administration had examined the Citizens' Assembly proposals in advance and divided them into three categories: not feasible, already in progress or feasible in principle - but still without a concrete implementation plan.
Non-implementable recommendations
Three of the Citizens' Assembly's proposals will not be pursued for financial, legal or organisational reasons:
- Childcare exchange: the idea of a centralised platform for flexible childcare fails due to high legal requirements and administrative hurdles. In addition, the personnel costs for the administration would not be affordable.
- Central youth centre: Although the city recognises the need for youth meeting places, it sees no acute need for action. The demand for such facilities is declining due to all-day schools and existing services.
- Citizens‘ buses for outlying districts: The establishment of a volunteer-run citizens’ bus has failed due to a lack of association structures in Aachen. Instead, the city relies on existing flexible mobility services.
Recommendations already being planned or implemented
Five of the Citizens' Assembly's recommendations are already being pursued by the city or are in the planning stage:
- Online advice centres for bureaucracy: a digital platform to support families is currently being developed, with planned implementation by 2026.
- Themed playground in the city centre: Inclusion-friendly play options are part of the existing city centre planning and are to be examined and implemented.
- Interactive website for family offers: A digital information platform is being developed and will be implemented in stages from 2025.
- Personal contacts for families: Existing visiting services for newborns could be expanded to enable long-term family support.
- Unsealing and greening initiative: The city is examining the extent to which citizens can be more involved in the greening of urban areas.
Recommendations still under review
Two recommendations are realisable from the point of view of the administration, but still require a council resolution:
- "Socially Active ’project: a programme to promote social skills among children and young people should be supported by school initiatives. The city could play a supporting role here, but has no direct influence on the schools.
- Digitalisation of administrative applications: The City of Aachen is already working on expanding digital application options, but is also examining how the process can be further accelerated.
The city council passed a corresponding proposal by the administration against the votes of the far-right AfD. The administration will report regularly on the progress of the implementation measures.
Citizens' Assembly as a permanent body
The Aachen City Council decided to introduce the permanent Citizens‘ Assembly on 30 March 2022 following a corresponding proposal by the “Citizens' Assembly for Aachen" initiative. The model is the citizens' dialogue in the nearby German-speaking Community (DG) of East Belgium. The parliament of the DG had already regulated by law in 2019 how the democratic instrument should be organised there. Since then, six mini-publics have already taken place in East Belgium. There are also permanent citizens' assemblies in Brussels, Milan and Paris.
Citizens' assemblies now also take place regularly in Aachen. The randomly selected body has a legal basis and a permanent organisational structure for this. New citizens' assemblies are organised time and again to provide politicians and administrators with direct recommendations from the citizens. The members of the Citizens' Assembly are newly appointed each year.