Simple things are 6 workshops where people with mental disabilities, together with craftsmen and artists, create beautiful and high-quality items: dishes, tech-style, wooden products, furniture, make jams and caramels. Behind every thing made in the workshops is a full-fledged life of a person with mental and intellectual disabilities, a quiet life of their loved ones, a host community of employees and volunteers who are now building a stable system so that people with mental disabilities in Russia can work in paid jobs and live a normal life among people, and not remain in isolation.
You can support the work of the workshops here.

You can buy simple things here: shop.prostieveschi.ru

Contact: prostieveschi.ru, da@prostieveschi.ru

Simple things

Normal Place is an association of non-profit organizations with the goal of creating a charitable cluster, a space of conscious consumption and an inclusive environment, culture and creativity on the shore of the Gulf of Finland with the support of Sevkabel Port. It is important for the team that this cluster works for everyone. The project is just being launched, and several St. Petersburg NGOs have become its founders: Simple things, an animation studio Yes, Prospects, a Charity shop Thank You and an inclusive cafe Cucumbers. The first Normal place will open on Sevkabel Port this summer.

Contact: welcome@mestonorm.ru

Normal Place

The Open Space was created in 2012 by independent election observers, as a common home where you can exchange experiences and invite people to meet. Today it is a point of attraction of the St. Petersburg civil society, a place where:
— you can hold an event about civil society for free;
— public co-working;
— the headquarters of the Group for Assistance to Detainees and «Observers of St. Petersburg»;
— feminist library;
— independent press center and mini-media for activists by the activists themselves, urban activism' event poster;
— trainings on information, physical security, protection of rights, crowdfunding, language courses for free or for donation;
— online store;
— open space community in 8 cities of Russia, and since May — also in Moscow

Contact: St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky 34, tel. +7 981 240 78 62, openspace.spb@gmail.com

The Open Space

Metacherdak (MetaAttick) is a co-working and educational center that has been in existence since 2016. Initially it was the space of the educational organization Metaversity. Now in Cherdak there is a co-working in the morning, and in the evening there are lectures, trainings, seminars, games, discussions. The team says that it is important for them to build horizontal relationships and share responsibility for the space together. Participates in the distribution of separate garbage collection on Vasilievsky Island, held a series of meetings on the topic of sustainable development.

Contact: METACHERDAK Cultural Club, St. Petersburg, 5-ya liniya V. O., 54
Website: metaversum.ru/cherdak
VK group: vk.com/meta4erdak
Group in FB: facebook.com/metacherdak/

Metacherdak (MetaAttick)

The centre for culture and well-being Lapinlahden Lähde is located in the old Lapinlahti psychiatric hospital in Helsinki. It serves as a centre for mental well-being and cultural events, and it is open to the public every day.
It organises seminars, gatherings and various events pertaining to culture and welfare. It also provides venues for the aforementioned activities. Moreover, it hosts art exhibitions in the Corri-dor Gallery in the main building and in the Open Space gallery in the Venetsia building located on the shore. Café Lähde in the main building is a lively forum that provides both salty and sweet treats. The old sauna of Lapinlahden Lähde is heated regularly and it provides both mental and physical relaxation for locals and visitors alike. The museum showcasing the history of the area and mental health care, called Mental Museum, is located on the ground floor of the main build-ing, adjacent to Café Lähde .
In addition, there is the Lähteen Puoti shop in which visitors can purchase handcrafted works from a selection produced by independent artists. Or perhaps one could enter Patina next door, a shop dealing in wholesale second-hand goods.

Contact: Lapinlahdenpolku 8, 00180 Helsinki
Website: lapinlahdenlahde.fi
FB: facebook.com/lapinlahdenlahde
Instagram: instagram.com/lapinlahdenlahde

Lapinlahden Lähde - The Centre for Culture and Well-Being

Museum of Impossible Forms (m{if}) is a cultural centre located in Kontula, East-Helsinki. The Museum is a space in flux – a contested space representing a contact zone, a space of unlearning, formulating identity constructs, norm-critical consciousness and critical thinking, already containing within it the potential for the para museum, the counter museum, the anti museum. 'Impossible Forms' are those that facilitate the process of transgressing the boundaries/borders between art, politics, practice, theory, the artist and the spectator.

Website: museumofimpossibleforms.org
Fb: facebook.com/impossibleforms
Instagram: @museumofimpossibleforms

Museum of Impossible Forms M{if}

Doing things together. Art. Urban culture. Experiments. Music. Events. Festivals. Urban farming. Open-mindedness. Having fun.

The idea for Kera-kollektiivi rose from the desire to create a great oasis of urban culture, where one can experiment and experience. Kera-kollektiivi operates in Keran Hallit, a former giant logistics center 15 min by train from the center of Helsinki. The place has been filled with urban art during the last year. And as soon as it's possible, it will be filled with events too.

Contact: jaakko@kerakollektiivi.fi, kerakollektiivi.fi
Website: kerakollektiivi.fi
FB: facebook.com/kerakollektiivi
Instagram: instagram.com/kerakollektiivi

Kera-kollektiivi

Kalasataman Vapaakaupunki (Free City of Kalasatama) is a place for everyone to chill out, work, meet people, read books or take part in events and workshops. Anyone can arrange an event free of charge, as long as it is open for everyone and fits with the values. The spaces are suitable for many different activities, for example workshops, hobby crafts, board gaming, co-working, yoga etc, and on Saturday evenings also DJ- and live music gigs. Vapaakaupunki is situated in the shopping center REDI in Kalasatama, Helsinki.

Website: vapaakaupunki.fi
Fb: facebook.com/vapaakaupunki
Instagram: instagram.com/vapaakaupunki

Kalasataman Vapaakaupunki

Cyklopen is a self-built and self-managed cultural and social space in Högdalen, Stockholm. The house is managed as an urban common, and strives for more democratic ways to share and distribute resources, space and knowledge.

Contact: info@cyklopen.se
Website: cyklopen.se

Cyklopen Cultural Center

Hägerstensåsens Medborgarhus is one of the largest meeting places in Stockholm and it was founded in 1957. We are a place for self-organizing, culture and more. We offer meeting places for the city dwellers and non-governmental organizations.

Contact: info@medborgarhuset.se
Website: medborgarhuset.se

Hägerstensåsens medborgarhus