Mattila men’s civic house – A new perspective to men’s work
Abstract
Mattila is a civic house for all men run by Settlement Tampere. In Mattila they do new kind of Men’s Work as a preventive social work. It is based on the theoretical perspectives of Community Social Work, Settlement movement and Freirean Social Pedagogy. The study clarifies the main features of action and practices in the everyday life in Mattila. In order to understand this new kind of Men’s Work we need to see the difference between traditional problem-oriented individual helping work and community based civic work. Man is not a problem and there are no helpers in Mattila. Mattila welcomes all kinds of men and there is no discrimination of color, race, age, sexual orientation or religion. Mattila encourages dialogue between different men with different backgrounds and promotes cultural exchange and awareness of different cultures.
