ILFRACOMBE LAUNCHES NEW COMMUNITY REPAIR CAFE

The Repair Cafe will provide a welcoming space for people to bring various items for mending; an opportunity to come together as a community, learn new skills, save money, and help save the planet - one punctured bike tyre or broken zipper at a time!

The Ilfracombe Repair Cafe is a partnership project, part of our expanding Repair Cafe network, and will be jointly hosted by Ilfracombe’s Earth Repair Shop and hand:plant cafe, with the support of volunteers from the local  community. The aim of the cafes is to reduce waste by helping people to repair items that may otherwise be thrown away, to support people during the cost of living crisis  (donations are welcomed, but there is no pressure or expectation), and to create a welcoming community hub.

The first Ilfracombe Repair Cafe will be taking place on Sunday 27th November 10am-1pm, with bike and sewing machine repairs taking place in the Earth Repair Shop on Church Street, and sewing, general, and some basic jewellery repairs taking place in hand:plant cafe across the road on the High Street. The plan is to host the Cafe on the last Sunday of every other month. 

The team are currently on the lookout for a few more volunteers, either to share their mending skills at the bi-monthly cafes or to help out behind the scenes and welcome people on the day. You don’t need to be a professional seamstress or upholsterer or mechanic to volunteer - just someone with some basic skills who is happy to share what they know. There is no pressure to undertake any repairs that you are not confident with. Please get in touch with the Earth Repair Shop on info@earthrepairshop.org if you would like to get involved.

Tia Psihogios, Campaigns and Premises Manager at the Earth Repair Shop, said of the new project:

“We’re really excited to be starting up a Repair Cafe - here at the Earth Repair Shop, we’re always looking for new ways to support nature and biodiversity within our community and local area. Reducing our waste, and providing an alternative for consumerism, is a really simple way to do this. Having the support of Plastic Free North Devon has been invaluable in terms of tapping into existing experience and resources, adapting an existing format to reflect and serve our own unique community - the repairs that we are able to offer reflect our volunteer base, so if anyone has any other skills to offer, please do get in touch!

 We are also very grateful to our neighbours hand:plant for offering up their beautiful space to host the event, and to our volunteers for giving up their time and expertise to make this happen - it feels like a real community effort. It is important to us to run these cafes as community events, giving people the opportunity to learn new skills that they can pass on to family and friends instead of just fixing things for them. ”

Claire Moodie, CEO for Plastic Free North Devon, explains a little more about the community aspect of the events:

“The running of these cafes is driven by  two fundamental things. Firstly, providing communities with the tools and skills to avoid the need to consume more things, ultimately reducing our collective impact on the planet; and secondly, a cross generational welcoming community space that allows people to share, learn, and consume tea  and cake together. Running our Braunton cafe over the last year has been one of the most rewarding things we have done as a charity and we are really proud and excited to be expanding on this concept which we hope will continue to build resilient communities and action. ’’

We are now building on the success of our original Braunton and Landkey Repair Cafes, thanks to funding from the National Lottery Together For Our Planet fund, and supporting North Devon towns and villages to get their own Repair Cafes up and running. A new Barnstaple Repair Cafe is also due to be launched in the new year, and we are keen to work with diverse community groups to create a truly inclusive and representative space. We are also members of the national Repair Cafe Network.

If you are an individual or community group interested in setting up or becoming involved with a Repair Cafe in your own town or village, please contact our PFND Repair Cafe Coordinator Cathy Karniewicz on cathy@plasticfreenorthdevon.org.