PRO LAPINLAHTI

Lapinlahden Lähde is located in the old Lapinlahti Psychiatric Hospital in Helsinki. It serves as a center for mental well-being and cultural events, and it is open to the public every day.

It organizes seminars, gatherings,nd various evevent youtwelfarere and welfare. It also provides vactivities abovened activities. Moreover, it hosts art exhibitions in the Corridor Gery in the main building and in the Open Space gallery in the Venetsia building locMental Health Associationo Lapinlahti mental health association,n, in turn, organises events, projects and volunteer work for Lapinlahden Lähde. Lapinlahden Lähde70,000ises nearly 200 events with 70,000 visitors every year.
The number of staff is around 25, voluntary work being equally important, around 30 volunteers plus government-supported part-time employers around 20 persons.

The curMental Health AssociationLapinlahti mental health association are:

  • The Miitti Project facilitates immigrants’ integration and rapport with the locals. Its name is an acronym formed from the following Finnish words: monikulttuurisuus “multiculturality”, ihmisyys “humaneness”, ilo “joy”, toiminnallisuus “functionality”, turvallisuus “safety” and innovaatio “innovation”.
  • centerkiluontokVenetianity nature centre) in the Venetsia buildiorganizeses the city’s nature and organizes nature,e-themed events, courses, lectures, and workshops in themes related to urban nature.

The essential values of Lapinlahden Lähde:

  • Openness, communality and participation: Lapinlahden Lähde is open to all, and everybody is welcome to take part in events and workshops. We contribute to society by preventing isolation and decreasing social exclusion.
  • Mental well-being: Lapinlahden Lähde organizes refreshing and relaxing services and events. Most of them are free of charge.
  • The positive influence of nature and culture: We organize talks, writer meetings, concerts and events focusing on nature for the public.

In Lapinlahti, we work actively with a holistic approach for mental wellbeing. Our slogan is ‘Lapinlahti for all’ telling our open and inclusive values. We are a ground up -organization that has a history as an old mental hospital. The center was started from grassroots level by activists, who wanted to save the spot to promote mental well-being.

Today, it has achieved those goals and could be seen as an example in this project. With the culture of openness and equality, within our ‘trial and error’ policy, we have tried countless things, and the best practices have survived.

Key person

Taina Laaksoharju is experienced in promoting people’s well-being mainly by supporting their connections to nature; both in theory, and in hands-on workshops. She is also a teacher of many garden-related subjects and has her own consulting firm ‘Happy-green’. She has multiple examinations: a Phd of agriculture and forestry, a tourist guide, a sports instructor, an environmental educator and a mindfulness coach. At a moment on the side of her daily nature-centre activities, Taina is working on a project improving sustainable development in Lapinlahti, and starting her post-doc research called ‘Here and now: paths in building connectedness to place’ (application for a grant open).

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