A new community resource for Kingsbridge, coming in January 2023
We are delighted to be up and running with our Repair Café project for Kingsbridge and the surrounding area.
Thanks to grant funding from South Hams District Council to help us kickstart the project - we were able to launch in January 2023 with our first event.
We are a member of the Repair Café International Foundation and are excited to join over 2500 other cafes in the repair movement worldwide!
Our Events
Our Repair Cafe is usually held on the last Sunday of the month, between 10am and 1pm at the Kingsbridge Care Hub.
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Our Repair Cafe in May will be part of "The Big Fix 2023".
The Big Fix is a UK-wide celebration of repair, started by our friends at Recycle Devon! Repair Cafe's across the country hold events and record all items saved from landfill.
Our Repair Cafe in May will be bigger than usual, with more opportunities to get your items fixed - including tool sharpening and repair, bike maintenance and many others to be announced! If there is a specialist repair you would like to see at this event, please get in touch and let us know.
We will also hold mini skills share workshops and activities for kids and young people, including a junk modelling station and upcycling workshops.
What is a Repair Cafe?
A Repair Café is a free meeting place where members of the community can have broken items fixed by skilled volunteer repairers.
It is an opportunity to breathe new life into broken items, ask for advice, learn new skills, save items from landfill, chat, drink tea and eat cake in a friendly community space.
Repair cafe's are non-commercial events - there are no promises or guarantees, but repairers will give their best efforts to save your items for you.
What items can be fixed?
Each monthly event will be slightly different depending on the volunteers that are able to attend each time. However the range of items that can be brought along to be fixed cover:
Electrical items such as hoovers and toasters
Toys
Clothing
Soft furnishings
Small items of furniture
Jewellery
Tools for sharpening
plus many more...
Each month we will share in our Facebook group and via our mailing list which types of repairs are available and whether any specialist items can be brought along, such as bikes, surfboards, wetsuits etc.
Where/when will it be?
Our Repair Café will be held at Kingsbridge Care Hub (Age Concern building), Ilbert Road, Kingsbridge.
It will be held on the last Sunday of each month, between 10am and 1pm.
Help us find our fixers!
If you are interested in helping the Repair Café project or volunteering at our events, please get in touch using the button below so we can connect.
Let us know how you may be able to help - your fixing skills or area of interest, or whether you can offer volunteer support to help run the events on the day.
We are always looking for people with fixing skills in a variety of areas to join our team, as well as people that can help welcome people at our events or bake cakes for our tea and cake station! We would love to hear from you.
What are the benefits of a repair cafe?
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Reducing waste by saving items from landfill.
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Reducing carbon footprints by buying less and prolonging the life of stuff we already have.
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Saving money by fixing instead of buying new.
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Sharing skills and learning from others.
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Connecting with our community, across generations, to build community resilience and wellbeing.
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Repair Café's teach people to see their possessions in a new light and to appreciate their value.
Image credit: Repair Cafe International
Skills Sharing
The heart of a repair café is the sharing of skills. Repair's work best when the person needing something fixed and the skilled volunteer work together to repair an item.
Repair cafe's also provide the perfect opportunity for mini workshops to teach basic repairing skills. This can happen either on the day of the repair café or as an additional event.
It can include skills such as repairing an old pair of jeans, replacing a fuse on a plug, sharpening tools or repairing a skateboard.
If you have skills to share with your community, or if there is something you would particularly like to learn - please let us know.
Join our Repair Directory!
We are on a mission to promote the repairing of items as the norm, to help combat our throwaway culture.
While our monthly repair café events are voluntary and repairs are donation based, we know there are also lots of local repair businesses in the area that we could promote and signpost to - both at our events and outside of them.
We would like to compile a directory of local repairers and repair businesses so people in the area have an easy way to find just the right person to mend their hoover, fix their mobile phone or repair the zip on their wetsuit.
Our repair café is a collaboration between Kingsbridge Climate Action, Kingsbridge Care Hub & Age Concern and Till the Coast is Clear, as well as many other community members and passionate doers. The project has been supported with grant funding from South Hams District Council to help us get up and running.
