Abstract
This project explores the complexities surrounding the transition of young adults with special needs into municipally operated supported housing in Denmark. This life-changing move is managed by local municipalities and ideally involves collaboration between the resident, their relatives, and a caseworker. Despite the intention of ensuring participation and involvement, practical and emotional challenges often limit meaningful inclusion. The project ’The Good Move-in’ enabled the researchers to examine how such transitions are currently handled and developed methods to strengthen the voice and self-determination of residents—particularly those with limited verbal communication. Through interviews, visual tools, and co-creative tasks—including a construction task—the project uncovered a tendency among professionals and relatives to assume residents’ needs without engaging them directly. Findings highlight how institutional and familial focus on logistics or care-related routines, risk to inadvertently overshadow the individuals own desires and experiences of ’home’. One central insight was that physical, tangible tools enhance residents’ ability to express preferences. The research sheds light on systemic ableism and the societal tendency to overlook those who cannot clearly articulate their needs, echoing wider patterns of exclusion. The study calls for a shift in practice: from assumptions to active but supported engagement. It argues that with the right tools and facilitation, all individuals can participate in shaping their lives—even during complex transitions. This work contributes to an inclusive, rights-based approach to housing, aligning with the UN’s principle to “leave no one behind” and advancing the field of social pedagogy through practical, user-centered design methods.
Keywords
Home; Transition; Design methods; Special needs
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1026
Citation
Christiansen, L.G.,and Pedersen, J.(2025) The Good Move-In: Enhancing Voice and Participation in Transitions to Supported Housing, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1026
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 7 - Service Design for Public Services and Policies
The Good Move-In: Enhancing Voice and Participation in Transitions to Supported Housing
This project explores the complexities surrounding the transition of young adults with special needs into municipally operated supported housing in Denmark. This life-changing move is managed by local municipalities and ideally involves collaboration between the resident, their relatives, and a caseworker. Despite the intention of ensuring participation and involvement, practical and emotional challenges often limit meaningful inclusion. The project ’The Good Move-in’ enabled the researchers to examine how such transitions are currently handled and developed methods to strengthen the voice and self-determination of residents—particularly those with limited verbal communication. Through interviews, visual tools, and co-creative tasks—including a construction task—the project uncovered a tendency among professionals and relatives to assume residents’ needs without engaging them directly. Findings highlight how institutional and familial focus on logistics or care-related routines, risk to inadvertently overshadow the individuals own desires and experiences of ’home’. One central insight was that physical, tangible tools enhance residents’ ability to express preferences. The research sheds light on systemic ableism and the societal tendency to overlook those who cannot clearly articulate their needs, echoing wider patterns of exclusion. The study calls for a shift in practice: from assumptions to active but supported engagement. It argues that with the right tools and facilitation, all individuals can participate in shaping their lives—even during complex transitions. This work contributes to an inclusive, rights-based approach to housing, aligning with the UN’s principle to “leave no one behind” and advancing the field of social pedagogy through practical, user-centered design methods.