Grouville Repair Café is coming ‘on tour’ to St. Saviour’s Parish Hall 

Saturday July 1^st Grouville Repair Café is coming on tour to St. Saviour’s Parish Hall. Come along between 9.30am and 1pm with your broken items, enjoy a lovely cup of tea or coffee, some cake and live music while your item is fixed.  

We have a motto “If you can carry it or wheel it, you can bring it”. For those of you familiar with your Parish Hall, you will know it is on the first floor so please consider whether you can carry or wheel larger items such as bicycles up the stairs or via the internal lift. 

Your Connétable Kevin Lewis is leading by example and has offered to be a general and electrical repairer at the event. He has asked Grouville Repair Café to come on tour for two reasons; firstly, to see if St. Saviour residents would like to run your own repair café and secondly to pair up experienced repairers with St. Saviour volunteers.  

If you would like to volunteer, please could you email [email protected] by June 1^st.  

For this event to be successful we need St. Saviour volunteers to pair up with Grouville volunteers. Specifically, we need: 

• Two cake makers to make four tray bake cakes. 

• Two people to serve teas and coffees. 
• Two welcomers (who will work with someone from Grouville Repair Café) 
• Up to 8 general and electrical repairers (if you want to volunteer but are not sure of your skills please do as we will pair you up with an experienced repairer who can share tools and knowledge). 
• Up to three sewers (with your own sewing machines) 
• One bike repairer 

• One jewellery repairer 
• One leather repairer 
• Three musicians (consider the event an open rehearsal – it is very relaxed). 
• Two helpers to run a ‘giving table’. 
• Two general helpers to set-up tables, chairs and banners at the beginning and take down at the end. 

• Two carpark attendants 

What is a repair café? 

Repair Cafés are community events where people can bring in their broken or damaged items, and skilled volunteers help them repair and restore them. 

What are the benefits of running a repair café? 

Repair cafés can have several benefits, for the community, the environment, and individuals.  

Promote sustainability: Repair cafés aim to reduce waste and promote a circular economy by repairing and extending the life of items that would otherwise be discarded. By repairing items, repair cafés help reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and the resources required to produce new items. 

Save money: Repairing items instead of buying new ones can save people money. Repair cafés often offer free or low-cost repairs, which can be especially helpful for low-income families. 

Build community: Repair cafés provide a space for people to come together and share skills and knowledge. Volunteers with repair expertise can teach others how to repair items, which can foster a sense of community and intergenerational learning. 

Encourage creativity: Repairing items can require creative problem-solving skills, and repair cafés can provide a space for people to experiment and try new things. 

Reduce carbon footprint: By repairing items, repair cafés help reduce the carbon footprint associated with the production and transportation of new items. 

The history of repair cafés 

The concept was first developed in Amsterdam in 2009 by Martine Postma, a former journalist, who was inspired to create a space where people could learn how to fix things and reduce waste. 

The first Repair Café was held in a community centre in Amsterdam, where volunteers with different repair skills, such as sewing, carpentry, and electronics, came together to help people fix their broken items. The event was a huge success, and it inspired Postma to create a larger movement. She founded the Repair Café Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps communities all over the world to set up their own Repair Cafés. 

Since then, Repair Cafés have spread to over 50 countries, with more than 2,000 locations worldwide.