Do you want to help fixing things and stopping them going to waste? Then please fill out the volunteer form – https://forms.gle/cE2gbFjGksauRsq8A – whether you are a skilled repairer, a keen amateur repairer or just want to help make our Repair Cafes work. Currently we are running Repair Cafes in Swainby and Stokesley, do you want to run one in your community, then let us know on the volunteer form.
The next Repair Cafés will be held on Saturday 10th June in the Globe Community Library in Stokesley and in Swainby Village Hall on Saturday 15th July both from 10am-12pm. So bring along your broken things and our volunteer repairers will work with you to fix them. If you would like to publicise the Stokesley and Villages Repair Cafés locally then please use the poster for our café – Stokesley pdf, Swainby pdf or save the images above to use on social media, thank you.
If you have never attended a Repair Cafe before, then this video of our Repair Cafe on 20th May 2023 in Swainby will give you an idea of what’s involved:
12 Repair Cafes have been scheduled for 2023, these dates are fixed, but are not immovable if something comes up:
- Swainby Village Hall – 3rd Saturday alternate months – 21st January, 18th March, 20th May, 15th July, 16th September, 18th November
- Stokesley Globe Community Library – 2nd Saturday alternate months – 11th February, 1st April (1st Saturday as it clashed with an event on 8th), 10th June, 12th August, 14th October, 9th December.
Stokesley and Villages Repair Café (SaVRC) is part of Climate Action Stokesley and Villages’ (CASaV) aims to act locally to reduce waste. A Repair Café is not a place but an event held in a location at a fixed time.
CASaV have joined the International Repair Café movement – https://repaircafe.org/en – a movement of over 2000 repair cafés worldwide to see if we can help to reduce waste.
SaVRC intends to operate Repair Cafés across Stokesley and Villages. At this time SaVRC is still developing its approach and at present we are holding Repair Cafés in Stokesley and Swainby. Experience from the International Repair Café organisation suggests that Repair Café works best when their is active local support – customers, volunteers, sponsors, donors, etc.. Please get in touch if you want to have a Repair Café in your community and are happy to help getting some of your neighbours involved.
We held our first Repair Café on Saturday 26th March in Swainby Village Hall, over 30 items were examined from clocks to jumpers, from toy trains to kettles, with over 70% successfully repaired – photo gallery.
We held our second Repair Café on Saturday 14th May in Swainby Village Hall, over 40 items were examined from computers to salt dishes, from shirts to toasters, with lots of successful repairs – photo gallery.
We held our third Repair Café on Saturday 25th June in Swainby Village Hall, over 50 items were examined from tablets (computer) to statues, from HiFis to lawnmowers, with lots of successful repairs – photo gallery.
We held our fourth Repair Café on Saturday 10th September in Swainby Village Hall, over 20 items were examined from tablets (computer) to heater, from motorised telescope to fleeces, with lots of successful repairs – photo gallery.
We held our fifth Repair Café on Saturday 24th September in Stokesley Globe Community Library, over 40 items were examined from lamps to vacuum cleaners from cushion covers to glass bowls, with lots of knives sharpened and lots of successful repairs – photo gallery.
We held our sixth Repair Café on Saturday 22nd October in Stokesley Globe Community Library, over 40 items were examined from megaphones to vacuum cleaners from prams covers to china horses, with blades sharpened and lots of successful repairs – photo gallery.
We held our seventh Repair Café on Saturday 19th November in Swainby Village Hall, over 50 items were examined from tablets to sound systems, from coats to trousers and cereamics – photo gallery.
While nothing last forever, a lot of the things we have are replaced when they could still be repaired if only we knew how or if there was somebody to repair them. The Repair Cafe idea is to get together people with things that need fixing with people who have repair skills, in an informal environment where the people needing repairs are actively involved in repairs, learning from the repairers new skills. Things break in all sorts of different ways, so we need repairers with all sorts of skills.
The idea of SaVRC is not to take work away from existing repair businesses (please get in touch if you are one, we would like to add to our Repair Professionals Directory), but to fill the gap where there is no repair available. So while we are keen to help with bicycle repairs that some people would do themselves, if your bike needs a professional service, then check out our repair list, similarly there are a number of lawn mower repair businesses locally, however if you were going to take something to the “tip” then don’t come to SaVRC first.
CASaV as a climate action group is motivated to reduce waste and thus reduce consumption as if items are mended, then they don’t need to be replaced. Repair Cafes not only have the benefit of reducing waste, but also saving money, an opportunity to learn new skills, a new forum for social interactions with a materials focus. CASaV hopes that SaVRC will start to change the way in which we think about things/stuff, not be quite so quick to throw away (there is no away), look to repair things first and through getting satisfaction out of repairing things value them more (c.f. BBC’s Repair Shop).
Please get touch if you have something that needs mending, if you want to help, if you know how we could do it better or just want to learn more about SaVRC or CASaV.
Stokesley and Villages Repair Cafe – SaVRC House Rules and Disclaimer for Visitors
Stokesley and Villages Repair Cafe – SaVRC Volunteer Code
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 