Normal Space

The Normal Space is the first reference center on drugs in favela territories in Brazil. Created by Redes da Maré following its engagement with the scenes of crack and other drug use located in Maré and its surroundings in 2015, the center opened to the public in 2018 and today receives around 150 people a day in a large warehouse in Parque Maré.

For more than a decade, the Normal Space has developed its own methodology of care in freedom, based on coexistence, building relationships, and coordination with public policies, while emphasizing the protagonism of its visitors.

This experience has contributed to the development of public policies aimed at promoting rights and has established itself as a national and international reference in harm reduction.

The Normal Space serves as a bridge between vulnerable populations and access to rights. Its work is based on a broad understanding of harm reduction for people experiencing homelessness and for people who engage in harmful use of alcohol and other drugs.

Its work combines listening, coexistence, direct care, access to the city, strengthening relationships, fostering autonomy, artistic experiences, and the development of possible pathways based on each person's concrete circumstances. In addition, it produces knowledge, provides training to systematize territorial action, and promotes advocacy initiatives.

More than a service, the space ensures better living and health conditions and expands the autonomy of its visitors.

ITS WORK COMBINES

welcoming and direct assistance to people experiencing homelessness;
coordination with health, social assistance, and justice services;
training professionals and producing knowledge;
public policy advocacy;
generating employment, income, and housing opportunities for visitors.

The 250-square-meter warehouse is open Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., providing a space where people can attend to their personal hygiene, eat, rest, access the internet, and enjoy leisure activities.

It also offers a cultural and rights-access program, with a team of harm reduction workers, psychologists, and social workers who mediate users' needs with social assistance services and facilities.

The project was created in 2015 as the result of a research and intervention process carried out by Redes da Maré with drug-use scenes located on Rua Flávia Farnese and Avenida Brasil.

In May 2018, the organization opened, in Nova Holanda, the facility called Normal Space. In 2022, the project moved to a larger space at Rua 17 de Fevereiro, 237, in Parque Maré.

HOW NORMAL SPACE WORKS:

(1) COEXISTENCE

The space creates concrete care alternatives for people experiencing homelessness or who engage in harmful use of alcohol and other drugs. This work involves qualified listening, shared care, access to basic rights such as hygiene and food, and spaces for leisure, rest, and internet access.

In addition, discussion circles, workshops, cultural activities, initiatives to strengthen family and territorial relationships, and opportunities to access other leisure and cultural spaces throughout the city are offered.

(2) COORDINATION AND POLICY ADVOCACY

The project works to build a territorial harm reduction agenda in dialogue with public institutions and local care networks. Through regular meetings with services that assist this population, Normal Space shares strategies, strengthens the support network, and expands access to rights.

Today, it participates in forums, councils, and spaces for debate on drug policies, motherhood, people experiencing homelessness, and human rights. It also holds weekly meetings in the territory of ATENDA, an integrated care mechanism that brings together institutions and facilities that support the population served by the project. Access the publication.

(3) PROTAGONISM AND CARE WITH A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

Normal Space encourages the active participation of people who spend time at the project on a daily basis, strengthening their appropriation of rights, their presence in spaces of representation, and their opportunities to generate income. The peer support methodology is part of this work and recognizes that life trajectories marked by vulnerability also produce knowledge, relationships, and the capacity to provide care.

This area of work includes specific initiatives aimed at women. Wednesdays are reserved for women's services, as part of a strategy developed in response to the perception of low participation by this group in the space. The proposal seeks to strengthen relationships, create more appropriate conditions for listening, and develop care practices with a gender perspective.

(4) AWARENESS-RAISING AND KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION

The project also develops awareness-raising initiatives on harm reduction in contexts affected by violence. This includes training, territorial and shared care activities, street-based initiatives, and ongoing work with scenes of crack and other drug use in the region.

At the same time, Normal Space produces public reflection on the issue and contributes to broadening the debate on care, rights, and drug policies in favela territories.

(5) RESEARCH AND TRAINING

The project's history has been linked to research since its beginning. In 2015, Redes da Maré conducted a study at the drug-use scene on Rua Flávia Farnese that gave rise to the article “My Name Is Not Crackhead” and launched a cycle of actions and partnerships that would result, in 2018, in the creation of the space.

Between 2019 and 2022, the project was a partner in the research project Building Bridges. In 2023, it began action research on care practices with a gender perspective as part of the “Elas em Cena” initiative, which resulted in a book.

Normal Space also contributes to professional training through the placement of residents and interns, in partnership with institutions such as the Municipal Health Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro and the Institute of Psychiatry of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

WHY IS THE SPACE CALLED NORMAL SPACE?

The project's name is a tribute to Carlos Roberto Nogueira, known as “Nem” and “Normal”, a local leader in the drug-use and housing scene on Rua Flávia Farnese, in Maré.

Since Redes da Maré began working in this territory in 2015, Normal played an important role in bringing the team closer to the scene and in building relationships that made it possible to consolidate the work in that space.

In January 2018, while the community center was being prepared to open, Normal died at the age of 32 after being struck by a stray bullet on Rua Flávia Farnese.

Naming the project after him is a way of remembering Carlos and, with him, so many people whose lives are marked by violence in favela territories.

At the same time, the name calls for a different perspective on people who use drugs and on people experiencing homelessness. It speaks to the right to difference, but also to the fundamental desire to have one's humanity recognized.