Community Repair Events
Resources for Starting a Community Repair Event
The Heart of the Matter:
“‘Everyone is in such a great mood’ at these events, Cotton said. ‘There’s this sense of community and camaraderie, and everyone is learning and everyone is teaching at the same time. It’s more than just ‘Come and get your broken stuff fixed.’ It’s more about building community.’”
— Darren Cotton, Buffalo NY Tool Library, The Wirecutter
The Vision:
People around the world have different takes on Community Repair Events. Mine is this: The purposes of events are:
To cultivate awareness of the bigger picture and of the pronounced impact reuse has on the environment, on personal well-being, and on our community's resiliency;
To cultivate motivation to extend the life of the things we have through repair; and
To cultivate the capacity to repair, through learning to fix things ourselves, or finding out how and where to have them repaired.
Variations on a Theme
The many thousands of Community Repair Events around the globe can have slightly different emphases and take various forms — cultivate communicate resiliency, lean into STEM, focus on electronics, etc. Different formats step into different opportunities, addressing different concerns. All are legitimate and the more repair the better.
The principle common objectives among most formats 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 extending the life of what we already have makes.
The common format is volunteers who know how to fix things getting together with people who don't, working to bring broken things back to life.
The common thing Community Repair Events largely aren’t is free repair services — drop off your broken item for later retrieval. Participants are “participants”: they’re involved.
Participation can mean hands-on, and it can mean observing goodwill meet with expertise in the form of a volunteer’s fixing their broken thing. The point is to gather together to repair objects. Learning, empowerment and shifting mindset take care of themselves in this context.
Practicalities — Resources for Getting Going
Repair Revolution
How Fixers Are Transforming Our Throwaway Culture
By Elizabeth Knight and John Wackman
Published in 2020
New World Library
310 pages
”Repair Revolution is the first book to comprehensively introduce the ideas of ‘repair culture’ and the wisdom and practice of repair to a larger audience. The book is about much more than Repair Cafes--it is about the way repair initiatives of all kinds build community and awareness about the larger challenges facing our planet. We believe that every town needs a Repair Cafe, Fixit Clinic, Tool Library or something like it, and Repair Revolution is also an empowering guide for readers who want to start a repair initiative of their own.“
https://www.repaircafeusa.org/repair-revolution-book
John Wackman was the driving force behind the Hudson Valley Repair Café network, which numbers in the dozens. This tireless work was the foundation for Repair Revolution. Members of HVRC discuss details about repair cafés in this video (length - 1:40) — invaluable information for anyone considering establishing one.
How-to guides:
Community Repair Network
How to Run A Repair Event is an excellent overview and deep dive into the particulars of establishing a community repair event.
For University Students — Community Repair Network
After prototyping and research across multiple universities in the UK, the Community Repair Network, with The Restart Project, published Student Repair Revolution, a guide for establishing repair initiatives on campuses, and hosting events. Useful in non-university settings as well.
Anya Dobrowolski
Community Repair Events — Common, Best, and Better Practices for Building Community Through Repair. An excellent compilation of practices based on wide-ranging research.
City of Austin, Texas
“Host a Fix-It Clinic: A Comprehensive Guide” — English version
”Como Organizar una Clínica de Reparación Fix-It: Guía Completa” — Spanish version
Example of how a city or other public sector entity can support community repair events: City of Austin SupportClub de Reparadores — Buenos Aires, Argentina — Spanish
This manual for organizing a repair event in a school setting is entirely applicable to organizing a repair event in any setting.
Materials: “Ligas Menores - Materiales ‘Armá Tu Club en la Escuela’”
Main Page: Cultura Reparadora en Escuelas
Urban Sustainability Directors Network — Eugene, Oregon
Community Repair Events
How-to and best practices, example of how a public sector entity can support, event impact on repair in community, useful linksThe Restart Project — The Restart Party Kit and supporting material
Repair Cafe International — How-to with links to supporting material and organizations.
Repair Café Toronto — Volunteer Descriptions Pamphlet
A brief and useful outline — Repair Cafe Notes by @fuzzyface@mastodonapp.uk
iFixit — The Basics of what community repair events are, the practicalities, the objectives, and the spirit.
Documents for a Community Repair Event in Berkeley that might be useful:
Community Repair Event Comprehensive Outline:
Logistics of an item’s movement from registration to completion
Volunteers — functions, skills needed, number needed for each task
Materials needed to manage item logistics, registration etc.
Project Timeline Template
Tool to schedule all tasks for CRE from finding a date to thanking sponsors
Volunteer Orientation (for the day of the event)
Supplies To Have On Hand:
— Starter List
— More Comprehensive