Repair workshops bring residents together while promoting everyday sustainability

There is an atmosphere of anticipation in the premises of African Care ry in Itäkeskus, Helsinki, as around ten women take their seats at a long table. A repair workshop is about to start in the club room, where anyone can mend their own clothes and receive guidance if they do not yet have the necessary skills.

The women around the table waste no time and get straight down to business. A sewer named Dirac is mending the frayed hem of a red dress.

“Using a sewing machine is new to me, this is actually my first time,” she says. Pau Kettunen, the workshop instructor, provides step-by-step guidance, and the results of the work are beginning to take shape.

Next to her, Keya is learning to darn a hole with wool yarn.

“I can do all sorts of things on a sewing machine because my mother taught me how. Darning, on the other hand, is completely new to me,” she explains.

Environmental targets pursued in collaboration with residents

The repair workshop is part of the City of Helsinki’s Sustainable Daily Choices project, which is aimed at raising the environmental awareness of residents so that the City’s ambitious climate targets can be achieved. This requires the involvement of residents. The City’s Environmental Protection Targets state that employees, companies and residents alike should act in an environmentally responsible manner.

“Helsinki has carried out a great deal of development work on the City’s own services and expert networks, for example in the areas of transport and construction. In recent years, we have been exploring more and more ways of carrying out environmental work in collaboration with residents and organisations. We hope that other cities will also be able to benefit from these experiences,” says Terhi Takala, the project manager of the Sustainable Daily Choices project.

The Sustainable Daily Choices project was launched at the start of 2024 and will run until the end of 2026. The project focuses on the circular economy, and its specific target group is immigrants. They were selected as the target group partly because foreign-language speakers currently account for 22% of Helsinki’s population, and this proportion is expected to continue rising in the future.

We want to ensure that all Helsinki residents have sufficient information and opportunities to contribute to making everyday life more sustainable

“The City’s services are intended for all Helsinki residents. As such, we have been trying to come up with ways to ensure that even the most disadvantaged people have access to them. At the same time, we want to ensure that all Helsinki residents have sufficient information and opportunities to contribute to making everyday life more sustainable,” says Takala.

The solutions piloted in the project include collaboration with organisations, eco-neighbour activities and advisory and discussion events.

An unexpected encounter led to collaboration

The City has also expanded its collaboration to include the fourth sector, meaning independent urban activism. The repair workshop collaboration came about by chance.

On the first Saturday of every month, shopping centre Redi in Kalasatama hosts a Korjauskaupunki (‘Repair city’) peer group session where anyone can mend their own clothes and belongings and learn from others. Laura Penttinen, an advocate for sustainable living, was chatting with another advocate about Korjauskaupunki at a circular economy event, when Leona Silberstein, an environmental specialist from the City of Helsinki, who was sitting at the next table, overheard the conversation.

“We started chatting with the neighbouring tables and thinking about what sort of collaboration we could do with the City to promote sustainable everyday life,” Penttinen recalls.

That meeting led to a collaboration which is now evident in the practical work carried out in the repair workshops.

The repair workshops have been well received

Huda Ibrahim, instructor of African Care’s HYRRÄ Women’s Groups, ensures that cooperation between the organisation and the project runs smoothly. She is an engineer specialising in energy and environmental technology, for whom the circular economy and environmental issues are part of everyday life.

“I have been able to put my own expertise to good use in this collaborative project. The environment and people go hand in hand, and these topics are clearly of great interest to people. Many people already have practical knowledge of the circular economy without realising it,” Ibrahim reflects.

Wellbeing Programme Coordinator Sanna Honkaniemi joined African Care in August, but had already heard from her predecessor just how enthusiastic customers were about the workshops.

“The basic idea relates to integration and environmental issues, which everyone has the right to learn about. We have the organisation’s own cultural interpreters and childminders on hand at our events to make participation as convenient as possible,” says Honkaniemi.

Terhi Takala confirms the demand for the workshops.

“Participants are constantly asking for more repair workshops. We have consistently received feedback that they are considered to be very important.”

A shift in thinking

Laura Penttinen and Pau Kettunen, who run the repair workshops, also find the experience personally rewarding. The working language of the workshops is Easy Finnish, which requires the instructor to express themselves concisely and clearly. According to Kettunen, it requires the instructors to shift their own thinking as well.

“Crafts require repetition, and at the same time you can teach the language by naming objects and the different stages of the process, for example,” explains Kettunen.

Penttinen adds that it can sometimes be difficult to describe darning techniques even in Finnish, in which case demonstrating them in person makes things easier to understand.

“Often I find that my own manner of speech remains brief and clear for a while even after the workshop has ended.”

Working together lowers the threshold to speak Finnish, a language that many immigrants do not get to use enough in their daily lives. As a result, the repair workshops allow participants to improve their language skills while giving their clothes a new lease of life.

“The most rewarding thing is seeing how knowledge begins to spread and how the group members help one another. The community and expertise begin to take on a life of their own,” says Kettunen.

The significance of the workshop goes deeper than the seams sewn. One of the participants, who wishes to remain anonymous and was interviewed via an interpreter, explains that handicrafts are an important skill in a country where the cost of living is high. The greatest reward, however, is psychological in nature.

“Being in the group makes me feel good. It is important to get involved and feel that you are part of society. If you’re having a bad day, this place will cheer you up. This has an impact on the whole family and, by extension, on society at large.”

Text: Elina Hakola