“I love how community is encouraging sharing and showing people how they can make a difference in a meaningful way.” [Angie, Sidmouth Repair Café]
This Saturday 27th September, Sidmouth Repair Café returns after its summer hols – and this month it’s very much on the map.
Earlier in the month, it featured in a piece from the county council heralding how community action against waste is going from strength to strength:
“Voluntary groups across Devon are playing a key role in the fight to reduce waste and now Recycle Devon has listed them all on a handy community map. There are currently 118 community organisations listed, offering ways to reduce, reuse and repair for free or a small donation. Whether you’re looking for your nearest Community Fridge, Library of Things, local Repair Cafe or Scrapstore, you will find it on the map...
“You can turn broken into beautiful with the help of your nearest Repair Cafe! Skilled volunteers are on hand to mend household items such as broken electronics, electrical equipment, bicycles, jewellery and more. It’s a great way to pick up some new DIY skills and there is usually cake and coffee on offer too!
“The experiences of volunteers such as … Angie, at Sidmouth Repair Cafe and the role of organisations such as SAVE Food Hub and how they work to benefit their communities can all be found through Recycle Devon’s website.“
And, as the map shows, Sidmouth not only has a monthly Repair Café and a SAVE Food Hub, but it also has a Beach Toy Library!
As for Angie’s experiences at the Repair Café, they are part of the wonderful Devon Community Action Group storytelling strand. As CAG says:
“The project’s aim is to create a more sustainable future by empowering community groups to take action. The economic and environmental impact of these groups can be measured through gathering data and general number crunching, but what about the wider impacts? How do we gain a better understanding of the impacts on volunteers and communities? What better way than to ask volunteers themselves.“
This is from Angie’s piece on the Sidmouth Repair Café and what it means to her:
Building relationships and learning.
“My first motivation is usually community relationships… finding ways of connecting people who often wouldn’t normally meet. But part of that is also skill sharing, and right from the start, I thought that was important for me. That’s the gift that we are all bringing to the table – people giving something of themselves to it. That helped me to realise that actually, it’s not about the money; It’s about people, practically helping each other and giving some love… I just love that. I feel quite emotional because I love how community is encouraging sharing and showing people how they can make a difference in a meaningful way. Generally, we think it’s money that’s valued in society, and it’s seen to be the important thing. But in a deeper way, we know – as human beings – that’s not really the case. That’s kind of a bit buried under the gloss of all that matters… youth, beauty, wealth… all that stuff. In a deeper way, we know that’s not what’s most important.
“There’s something about the fixing of things that is kind of healing for us, particularly for the more personal items. People find comfort in this, and I think it’s multi layered. We always try to fix items on the day, so we sit with the person. We never take things and just say we’ll go away and come back… that’s not what we do, because it’s about building relationships and learning. This is the ethos of the Repair Café movement which we’ve always stuck with. For us, it is more than just reducing how much we send to landfill, the project has become remarkably sociable. Some people will come just to have coffee and cake, and when people bring their stuff, there’s conversation, chat, and refreshments. I suppose what I’m doing is creating and hosting an environment that allows people to be with one another.“
…