child_care_center – Shakiba Matin

Projects

ChildCare Center For Child Labor

A place where a child has the opportunity to learn, grow, rebuild their connection with life, and heal their traumas.

After about a decade of working with working and vulnerable children through the NGO Sobh-e-Ruoyesh, we gradually reached a point where we realized that some of the kids had more complex stories. Children whose family situations were so harsh and unsafe that, by court order, they were separated from their families and placed in residential care centers, places meant to be a refuge but, in practice, did not prepare them to return to real life.

This is where we decided to approach the issue through the lens of service design.

The goal was simple yet weighty: to create a model for a care center where “care” is only part of the experience, not the whole thing.

A place where a child has the opportunity to learn, grow, rebuild their connection with life, and heal their traumas.

NGO Sobh-e-Ruoyesh
A NGO which provide variety services to chold labor

Service
Child care center for child labor

My role

Service designer

Team

design team collaborates with support and psychology specialists.

Problem

Through years of work in the social sector, we have repeatedly witnessed children who are discharged from care centers after turning eighteen face serious challenges on the path to independent living.

The centers that were supposed to be a refuge or a second home often in practice only served as “holding places,” with no clear design for the child’s growth, learning, and preparation for independent living.

On the other hand, the deep traumas these children experienced, whether from their past lives or their time in the center, were usually ignored, and there was no coherent therapeutic process for them. The voices of the children and their real needs were also not heard in the decision-making and service design processes; in other words, the user’s voice was effectively erased.

Over time, through data analysis and field observations, we realized the issue wasn’t just a lack of resources or personnel; it was rooted in the centers’ service model. The needs of the users (the children and even the staff) had not been properly identified, and the existing services were not designed around the users’ needs and pain points.

As a result, a child who is now eighteen years old enters adulthood with untreated traumas, unlearned skills, and an unlived childhood, only to face a new wave of harm.

The existing services had failed to create an empowering experience for the user or break the cycle of harm.

That’s why we entered the Discovery phase to understand exactly what factors had made these centers inefficient; from the organizational structure and user flow to the communication language, roles, caseworker decision-making processes, and the day-to-day experience of the children themselves as the primary users of the system.

Discovery

The design journey began with the Discovery phase, where we decided to look at the issue from the lived experience perspective of all stakeholders.

Through a series of in-depth interviews with coaches, social workers, psychologists, center directors, managers of government organizations, and of course, the discharged children themselves, we sought to hear the issue from the heart of reality.

The interviews were conducted in a GOOB (Get Out of the Building) method; that is, we entered the users’ actual environment, observed the space and behaviors firsthand, and experienced the situations.

In the data analysis, recurring patterns emerged. One of the key findings was that many of the primary roles, such as the caregivers, did not have a precise understanding of the concept of trauma and its impact on a child’s psyche and behavior. As a result, they were unaware of the children’s needs and behaviors; from the children’s perspective, they were sometimes seen more as “guards” than as “caregivers.”

Subsequently, the project’s Conceptual Model took shape; a model comprising 18 propositions that revealed the root causes of the centers’ inefficiencies.

Among these root causes, a key insight emerged:

“The centers’ lack of a ‘home-like’ quality is the primary cause of their inefficiency.”

After defining the persona and the primary audience “working and vulnerable children who are separated from their families by court order” and categorizing the root causes of inefficiency, the design framework progressed along three main axes:

User Journey: From intake to readiness for discharge and independent living

Support Systems: Human resources, training, and supervision mechanisms

Framework and Rules: Regulations, red lines, and operational principles of the center

After this stage, we entered the Ideation phase

Ideation

The center’s service model based on the actual needs of its users.

In a series of joint sessions with social work, psychology, and education specialists, various service design scenarios were developed and reviewed to shape the center’s service model based on the actual needs of its users.

This process resulted in a Service Blueprint that seamlessly integrated the user journey, touchpoints, roles, and support systems.

The physical design of the house was also part of this process.

Existing centers were more like dormitories or camps; children there felt neither a sense of ownership nor an experience of “home.”

In the new design, the interior of the bedroom, personal belongings, the kitchen, the yard, and nature were redesigned as key elements in shaping a sense of security and belonging.

Next, the human resources system was also reviewed from a service design perspective, from how staff are selected and trained to how they are retained and motivated. The educational system was also designed based on indirect, experience-based learning so that the child is gradually prepared for entry into society, the workforce, and independent living.

The project is now in the testing and redesign (iteration) phase, and initial results indicate that the designed model is creating positive changes in the children’s life experience.

Results and Outcomes

Over the past two years, the effects of the designed model have gradually become apparent in the children’s daily lives and experiences.

Growth in social skills, emotional recognition, empathy, problem-solving, and consistent school attendance are among the signs of this change.
Practical training, such as computer work, carpentry, and gardening, has also helped empower the children.
Planting vegetables and caring for small pets have been part of the process of learning “responsibility,” and a focus on non-pharmacological therapies like play therapy and speech therapy has led to a reduction in the use of psychiatric medications among the children

Reflections

Children in this home had found a sense of belonging

Presenting the designed model to other centers and professionals in the field revealed that service design had been seriously lacking in care facilities.The feedback was both a confirmation of the path taken and an inspiration for the continued redesign.
Seeing that most of the children in this home had found a sense of belonging, with their behavioral and emotional changes being noticeable, was a sign of the designed model’s effective functioning.
During the iteration phase, we also enlisted the help of international experts in the field of children’s care centers to integrate global experiences and approaches with the project’s local realities. This phase was an opportunity to rethink and evolve the model, so that the home created for these children would become more and more like a “home” with each passing day

I learned : )

It became clear to me that design can transform people’s lives!

In this project, I learned

how nuanced and impactful stakeholder management is. We were working with people who had years of experience working with child laborers, but it was necessary to adapt their working methods based on research and design findings. I learned how to guide them through the design process so they would feel a sense of ownership and participation, which I believe directly impacted the project’s success.
On this project, I gained deep experience in translating user insights and needs into tangible, actionable services, and learned how to document and communicate this journey using a Service Blueprint.
And perhaps most importantly, it became clear to me that design can transform people’s lives; if it enters the social sphere, it can sometimes even save a life.

Contact me

I believe great things start with a simple conversation.

Let’s get to know each other.