Our goal is to empower children, youth and families to move towards a sustainable digital life.
We help youth, parents and/or youth providers (including schools, social workers, etc) to navigate a healthy 'middle road,' grounded in authentic youth experience.
Our Purpose
We co-create co-learning spaces so that experts and influencers* help support a safe and healthy digital life.
*if you have a brain and a heart, you are an expert and influencer.
Meet the Founders
Co-Founder
Liz Lian
Liz, mother of two daughters (13 and 18), brings over 25 years’ experience with technology design and education systems innovation, which she now enjoys connecting to the joys and challenges of learning and parenting in our rapidly changing digital world.
Co-Founder
Felix Hollenstein
Felix, father of two sons (15 and 17) and an innovation management consultant, has wrestled for years with the questions of what changes the digital age might bring to our lives and what a healthy approach to technological possibilities might look like.
Our Story
Middle Road was born out of the hopes and concerns of parents, seeking practical guidance to prepare our children for navigating the online world. We quickly found, in our research and expert interviews, polarizing views on the benefits and dangers of the digital world. Almost none spoke to the middle. The idea of a 'Middle Road', an informed and balanced path that bridges the promise of technology while acknowledging the harms technology can bring, deeply resonated with parents.
2022
Middle Road is founded, to bring individuals and organizations together, to co-learn and co-create solutions that help build this path together toward a vision for a better future.
2024
Recognizing that the most effective learning and solutions incorporate youth voices and experience, Middle Road pivots to prioritize youth-centered work. Our first youth leader designs and implements an interactive theater project, 'for youth by youth', resulting in Digital Youth Project Basel.
2025-2026
Middle Road focuses on helping the Basel community gain insight into local youth digital experience.
Student leaders at skuba, the student association at the University of Basel, design and implement the STREAM study, to learn more about the interaction between student mental health and youth digital experience.
Our first crowdfunding campaign funds a youth leader to design and lead the Class Chat Insights project, to understand better what is happening in student class chats in the Basel region.
Middle Road develops KISSS digital parenting workshops (Keeping It Simple, Strategic and Sustainable) to fund future youth leaders. Classes are designed to be accessible for all parents and use youth experience as a learning tool.