Our Repair Cafes are going from strength to strength, with increasing numbers of visitors and more and more skilled repairers. We are hugely grateful to them all.
However, we’re still looking for people to help with our social media, video and publicity - can you spare a couple of hours a month? We’d like to make 2023 an even greater year of growth, as there certainly is a need for our services. If you can help you would be made very welcome in our friendly group.
The totals for our 4 Repair Cafes from August to November have now been confirmed....
After a couple of pilot events at Haregate Community Centre and the Foxlowe Arts Centre, we're delighted to report that the Repair Cafe programme is now up and running, with quite a few happy punters taking away beautifully mended objects. These range from mended clothes to a clothes line pole to televisions. Repairs aren't always possible but we can refer owners to professional repairers in the area. The television shown here couldn't be mended but one of our volunteers gave the young couple her recently replaced TV - an example of true community spirit.
These events run once a month, alternating between the two venues.
Our plans to set up a Repair Cafe are progressing well - we have had 2 meetings now with over 20 people attending and have already been successful in a couple of grant applications. We are pleased that 3 people have come forward to be PAT testers for electrical items, and now we have had it confirmed that we will receive £500 from County Councillor Charlotte Atkin's Climate Action fund, we can crack on and get the PAT unit purchased and the 3 people get the certification we need for our insurance. We are also grateful for District Councillor Lyn Swindlehurst's grant from her Councillors' Community Initiative Fund. She's also proved herself pretty nifty with a needle and thread when repairing the trimming on Leek Town Crier Bill Lomas's hat.
We are hoping to establish a Moorlands Repair Cafe project this year, initially based in Leek, but if successful look to expand into other Moorlands towns and villages in the future. The basic idea is to repair items to prevent them being sent to landfill, saving people money, saving resources and also building up skills across our community. There is also a social element, bringing people together to share and support each other. We have visited Repair Cafes in Macclesfield, Congleton and Buxton and now hope to set up a scheme in the Moorlands. We need fixers and a support team to look after the finances, room bookings, promotion and recruitment on more volunteers.
We have access to resources on how to set up Repair Cafe, and on March 5th we will be explaining how you can get involved. More details at Moorlands Repair Cafe.