At Community Repair Events volunteers who know something about how to fix things work with people who don’t, to try to bring something back into service.
The essential elements of community repair events are teaching and emboldening people to fix their own things, encouraging a shift in how we think about our possessions, and raising awareness around the profound impact made by extending the life of what we already have.
There are thousands of community repair events around the world — Repair Cafés, Fixit Clinics, Restart Parties, and many local, independent initiatives, are all variations on the basic theme: volunteers getting together to help people repair their broken things.
These videos communicate not only what community repair events are, but demonstrate one way people can respond to waste, planned obsolescence, barriers to repair, the consumption-driven economy, consumer dis-empowerment, and related. This website contains resources for linking community repair events with the classroom.
What Community Repair Events Are:
Check out — Palo Alto Repair Café video (3:28 min)
Check out — Berkeley Repair Café video (1:54 min)
Check out — Fixit Clinic video (3:23 min)
Check out — Restart Parties video (4:19 min)
Go here for more information about what Community Repair Events are.
Go here for guides for setting up a community repair event, including materials in Spanish for setting up an event in a school context.
Visit:
Community Repair Events are terrific places for young people to visit, to apprentice, and to volunteer. Adult volunteers are generous with their time, knowledge and enthusiasm, and are great teachers. Event organizers universally warmly welcome students’ visits and participation.
Host:
School-based repair programs can host their own events. For examples, see the programs at Fieldston School, Malvern Hills Repair Café and Rudolf Steiner School Munich-Schwabing.
To find an event near you:
Three organizations sponsor hundreds of events in all quarters of the world. Many, many independent organizations operate in their respective communities:
The Restart Project — The UK, Europe and Virtual
Events listed here.
Repair Café — Worldwide
Over 125 in the USA, from Berkeley to the Hudson River Valley to Palo Alto to Houston to Montreal to Pasedena, and everywhere between
Events listed here.
Fixit Clinic — USA and Virtual
Events listed here.
A handful of the many, many independent groups follows.
A Google search will turn up scads more.
Search on: Fixit Fair, Repair Fair, Repair Cafe, Fixit Clinic, …
Repair PDX — Portland, Oregon USA
Community Glue Workshop — Chicago, Illinois USA
King County Repair Events — Seattle end environs, Oregon USA
Fixing Factory — London and environs
Share, Reuse, Repair — Vancouver, Canada
The Bower — Sydney, Australia
The Remakery — London, UK
Philly Fixers Guild, Repair Fair — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
Fix-It Fair — Eugene, Oregon USA
The Goodlife Centre — London, UK
Age — All ages
Cost — Free
Sources — Various Public Media
See other entries in this Educator Resource Library for materials linking community repair events to schools, some designed to meet educational standards. (e.g., Malvern Hills Repair Café, Restart at School, Club de Reparadores, Organiser Un Repair Café Dans Mon École!)
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