Repair Café
Back in the mists of the idea of helping people fix things from their homes rather than throw them away started to form. To help people save money. Also to reduce resource consumption and carbon footprint.
The idea was discussed in TTK meetings. Initial possible volunteers seemed very keen. So Marilyn M in particular put in a lot of legwork researching what schemes might be available, and what was already going on nearby that might be relevant.
One of us had already had dealings with The Restart Project.
In the end we decided that we would follow the Repair Café template as Repair Café Kingston (RCK).
We picked a time (the first Saturday of each month) not to clash with nearby events.
Then with quite a lot of effort from paperwork and finding a venue and whole bunch of repairer volunteers, we were ready to go.
(Thank you volunteers and organisers, and thank you Maya especially!)
Many thanks for seed funding from John Lewis (and TTK core funds). Thanks also to Kingston Library for being a keen and patient host!
With some trepidation, not knowing if we'd be overrun or ignored, we set the first RCK for .
There have now been three RCKs: , , and . Yes, April Fools' Day!
We like visitors to book if possible. Booking helps us gauge demand and avoid long queues. When booking a ticket a donation can be made too. Donations can be made on the day in cash and electronically. Including for coffee / cake / etc!
Categories are textiles, appliances and tech and other, and that broadly matches the benches we have laid out in the library. ("Other" also serves as triage.)
The repair Café ethos is "watch and learn" and "have a go". Visitors should not dump items to be repaired walk away. Instead visitors are expected to be present and maybe participate, giving them the opportunity to learn and to make a fix themselves in future.
More than a quarter of the items that come to RCK are fixed.
For about another half of the items, we can offer advice instead.
We seem to be achieving similar rates to similar groups. We are avoiding items going to landfill and/or having to be replaced.
Fixes have been as simple as a chewed plug on an otherwise fine vacuum cleaner. Also teddies and other toys, and even a record player.
Financially we need to keep an eye on donations to cover running costs. And there will be some more capital expenditure such as for a replacement Zettle reader (we are borrowing one). But in general, so far, all seems manageable.
To sum up (thanks Hilary G):