Caring Neighbourhoods

En nu wij Samen

Elderly care is changing. We will increasingly care for and with one another. This also requires a different approach from professionals. What can professionals do differently, or perhaps let go of? And how? What does it require of them to transfer care tasks and collaborate with others? Where are the opportunities and how do you find the space to seize them?

Together with ActiZ, the trade association for care organisations, morgenmakers is exploring the role of care professionals in a society with evolving elderly care in Co/Lab: Caring Neighbourhoods. We are already seeing new forms of living arrangements, local initiatives where neighbours and care organisations create supportive networks, and closer collaboration between welfare and care organisations. With the growing demand for care and limited growth in care staff, a new approach is essential.

This lab focuses on the future role of care professionals as caring communities, where residents support one another, become increasingly important.

morgenmakers is working with three care organisations—Archipel Zorggroep, Coloriet, and CuraMare—to explore and test new concepts. The research, which began in May 2024, includes workshops, interviews, and creative interventions within the care sector. During Dutch Design Week 2024, initial insights were shared, and visitors discussed their role in caring neighbourhoods.

In 2025 two innovative concepts emerged from the design trajectory and were further developed under the name En nu wij samen, supporting professionals in shaping this change: 1. Making space and 2. Do it together.

Ruimte pakken

In the daily practice of elderly care organisations, much is guided by habit and written or unwritten rules. But that is not always the best option. Ruimte pakken invites teams to think and act differently.

With practical instructions, it helps professionals to see, share and try out possibilities: to work better together with residents and relatives, and to reduce workload. In this way, they jointly create space to change care.

How Ruimte pakken works

Start session
Ruimte pakken begins with a start session. The working method is introduced and team members enter into conversation using example cards. The package includes a large set of real-life examples. Is this an opportunity that appeals to this team?

Opportunities board
On the opportunities board, team members can pin up ideas they would like to do differently, using the example cards or post-its. Others can respond using stickers.

Team meetings
During team meetings, the opportunities are discussed. Which idea do we want to try out? Sometimes this can be done immediately, sometimes preparation is needed, for example in conversations with practitioners or residents. The opportunity cards then move on the board to ‘in preparation’ or ‘being tested’.

Keep doing it?
After a period of experimentation, the team decides whether to keep the new situation or adjust their approach.

A follow-up trajectory for Ruimte pakken will begin in 2026. The testing phase showed that participating organisations used the package in different ways. For example, whether or not the board was visible to residents and/or family members, or whether there was an active facilitator driving the process. These differences showed that the package is flexible in how it can be used in practice, but that many questions remain about how to introduce and implement it within a care organisation. The introduction in particular, with or without an ambassador present, involving a newly formed team or a team that has worked together for a long time, working with one team or department versus several at once, is a crucial step in successfully making space.

Several teams have already worked with Ruimte pakken. Curious about their experiences? You can find them here on the En nu wij samen website.

Doe het samen

In neighbourhoods, there is a busy landscape of organisations involved in elderly care, welfare, housing or improving overall liveability. Collaboration is increasing. That is positive. But do these organisations really understand one another? Do they know each other’s interests? And are expectations aligned?

Doe het samen helps align key issues in such situations. The foundation of Doe het samen is a framework with six themes. This quickly reveals whether partners are aligned and where extra attention is needed. The focus is not so much on what you will do together, but on why and how, whether you speak the same language and what other interests are at play.

The Doe het samen package provides a supportive framework for conversation. It can be used in discussions about collaborating with other organisations. The framework highlights six themes related to cross-domain collaboration. For each theme, questions have been developed that partners can discuss together. The framework is gradually filled in over time and remains a continuous element within ongoing collaboration conversations. To give the collaboration a visual form, a mascot is available.

Follow-up
Doe het samen has been completed and is ready to use. The package includes the framework, a clear explanation of the six themes and instructions for use. At the end of 2025, all ActiZ members received a package, enabling them to start using Doe het samen straight away.

The web is flexible and can be used, for example, at the start of a new initiative or when collaboration has been ongoing for some time and misunderstandings arise. It can be applied on the work floor as well as in boardrooms.

Want to get started with Doe het samen? Read it here, of visit the En nu wij samen website.

Partners in this research were:

• DDF
• Design agency morgenmakers
• Trade association ActiZ
• Elderly care organisations Archipel Zorggroep, CuraMare and Coloriet

Download the process report at the bottom of the page.