KeramArt Ceramic Workshop «KeramArt»
As the result of a 20-year vocational rehabilitation program of BOOOPI "Disabled Person and Environment" and LLC "Youth Initiative Center", in 2005 the «Keram Art» workshop was established in Brest at 39 Leningradskaya Street. Almost from the very start of our work, we began producing souvenir products, tableware, and applied ceramic items.
A distinctive feature of our center is that young people with disabilities work in our workshop and at the same time undergo vocational rehabilitation. Six people currently work with us. Despite our particular circumstances, we always strive to keep the quality of our products at the highest level. Over the entire period of our work, we developed and brought to market a huge variety of products, but we focused on what is truly in demand among buyers and what we do better than others. In 2006 we became acquainted with the experience of similar enterprises like ours in Sweden, where they operate as social cooperatives. We began building the work of our center on the example of the Swedish company «Roslagen» www.coompanion.se. As early as 2007 we began applying the principles and methods of social cooperation at «KeramArt». To this day we regularly exchange experience and share new developments and technologies. In 2008 we joined the Association of Swedish Social Cooperatives SKOOPI www.skoopi.coop. It should be noted that we became the first and, so far, the only foreign social cooperative. In our work we use the principles of social cooperation. Since one of these principles is solidarity, we share our experience with everyone who has already created their cooperative or is striving to do so. With the support of our Swedish colleagues, we regularly hold seminars and master classes. We will be glad to cooperate with you!
Vocational rehabilitation
In 1999 we came to the conclusion that the main goal of rehabilitation for young people with disabilities is full-fledged employment.
Together with the Regional Department of the Social Service for Employment of the Population, BOOOPI "Disabled Person and Environment" for 4 years our organization ran a vocational rehabilitation program within the state program «Community Benefit Works». About 50 young people with disabilities at the «Sputnik» tourist base on Beloye Ozero under this program learned the basics of ceramic production from clay, plaster, and concrete, woodworking and wood carving, fundamentals of applied art—that is, compositions from natural materials and straw inlay.
From the very beginning, the permanent coordinator of the vocational rehabilitation program has been Vasily Borisov, as director of LLC «Youth Initiative Center». Young people up to 30 years of age work in this community, usually with disability groups I and II, who cannot work in ordinary production conditions and are not competitively employable in the labor market. Everything began with the manufacture of souvenir products from ceramics and straw for social institutions in our region. It should be noted that this work with young people with disabilities in the republic appeared much earlier than the creation of Territorial Centers for Social Services to the Population.
Young people with disabilities lived and worked at the «Sputnik» tourist base. The group had 15 people. For many, this was their first work experience, and those who until recently had a medical conclusion that work was inaccessible acquired professions. After completing rehabilitation with us and receiving employment record books, they tried to find jobs at enterprises near their place of residence. This movement grew into the state TCSSON program, and in connection with this we, as a public organization, stopped receiving financial support in this area.
Over these years, on the territory of the «Sputnik» tourist base on Beloye Ozero, the «Green House» center for independent living and work for people with disabilities (Social Village) was built with the assistance and funding of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany.
A house with a spacious pottery workshop designed for 4 workplaces for people with disabilities, combined with living quarters for 4 residents, is still in use today.
On the basis of the «Green House» workshop, BOOOPI "Disabled Person and Environment" constantly conducts outreach vocational rehabilitation and ecotourism programs financially supported by the following foreign foundations: the «20 Years Later» program, «Computer Literacy» BOOOPI "Disabled Person and Environment", «Green Leaf» 2000—ISAR, «Water—the Source of Life» 2001—ISAR, «Grove of Joy» 2004—ISAR, «Chorny Poplau» 2005—ISAR, «From Heart to Heart» 2006—ISAR, the Swedish «Social Cooperatives» program, «The Art of Being Yourself» supported by the International Children's Fund, «Informal Training in Creative Professions for People with Disabilities» by the Embassy of Finland. The «Green House» is acquiring the image of a center for spreading new ideas on accessible vocational and cultural rehabilitation for people with disabilities.