Join us for International Repair Café Week 2018

By Jenny Lindsay

It’s time to get that old broken “thing” out of the back of the cupboard or shed or wherever you’ve stashed it. We’ve got the best reason to take action, because 13-21 October 2018 is International Repair Café Week.

An experience becomes a movement

“On Thursday 18 October it was nine years ago that Martine Postma organised the very first Repair Café. On this day in 2009, dozens of residents brought their broken items to a theatre in Amsterdam. Now there are over 1,600 Repair Cafés in 33 countries, spread across six continents.” - International Repair Café Foundation

Martine might be surprised at how the Repair Café movement has taken off. Her commitment to sustainability at a local level inspired a model for bringing communities together to enjoy all the benefits of the Repair Café experience.

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Learn while reclaiming lost items

The volunteer “fixers” who attend the Repair Café bring a wealth of knowledge to share with visitors. Some come from mechanical engineering or trades backgrounds, textiles expertise or trained jewellery-makers, for example. Yet others have accumulated years of practice in trouble-shooting and repairing their own things. They have a curious nature and love the sense of achievement when that niggling fault has been found and fixed.

​While practising their skills, they love to show and teach others about the fixing process, from testing all the “likely suspects” of a fault, to pulling things completely apart.

One of our favourite fixes was from a visitor who’d scored a classic record turntable second-hand, but the needle was playing up. Taking the item apart revealed the previous owner, a DJ, had modified the needle arm with a bit of sticky tape. Problem solved - which was music to our visitor’s ears!

Share the experience with others in your community

We are thrilled to get enthusiastic feedback, like:

“Loved the chats with other attendees while I was in the queue!”
“Great experience. Lovely to chat to the repairers”
“Love the practical, innovative solutions and community ethos”

One of the powerful impacts of the Repair Café in the community is bringing people together. We’re proud to promote the International Repair Café Foundation goal:

“The Repair Café Foundation wants to make repair a part of the local community once again. It aims to maintain and spread repair expertise, and to promote social cohesion by bringing together neighbours from all walks of life and sets of motivations in the form of inspiring and accessible meetings.”

When visitors hang around for a while, observing other fixes after theirs is finished, we know we have something more than a repair service. It’s not just about reclaiming useful or much-loved items - it’s making connections with neighbours that keeps visitors coming back.
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Find a Repair Café near you during this International Repair Café Week 13-21 October and check out what all the fixing fuss is about.

The next session of Melbourne Repair Café (Inner West) is Sunday 14 October 2018. Come along and join us to mark International Repair Cafe Week!

​(We run the second Sunday of each month from 10am – 1pm at the Yarraville Community Centre, 59 Francis St Yarraville)