Local Urban Landcare Group introduce the Repair Cafe to Horsham
Horsham Urban Landcare is one of nearly seventy organisations that recently received funds through Horsham Rural City Council’s (HRCC) Community Development Program.
The Community Development Program is an annual funding opportunity offering cash support to community organisations for special projects, improvements and initiatives. This year 70 per cent of applications were successful, sharing in a total of $201,436.
Horsham Urban Landcare was granted $1,300 to support a new initiative for Horsham, a Repair Cafe.
Repair Cafes can be found around the world. They are often run by community organisations and help people repair broken items, instead of seeing them end up in landfill.
Horsham Urban Landcare floated the idea to start a Repair Cafe of its own and called for volunteers who could help with making repairs. It now has a group of handy individuals all willing to volunteer their skills in fixing toys, electronics, bikes, clothing and even artwork.
The money from the HRCC Community Grant will allow the group to purchase basic tools, glues and fixtures to make repairs, along with a weigh scale. Every item bought into the café to be fixed will be weighed so that a tally can be kept of the volume of items being kept out of landfill.
Another feature of the Repair Cafe is that while items are being fixed, valuable skills are passed on. Each repair volunteer will work with the owner of the item to teach them how the repair is made.
The Repair Cafe also provides an opportunity for social connection with anyone able to drop in, have a chat, a cup of tea and pick up some new repair and DIY skills.
At this stage there are no definite plans of when the Repair Cafe will open, but Horsham Urban Landcare is looking forward to getting back into action and picking up from where they left off before the global pandemic put things on hold.
When it does open, the Repair Cafe will take place once a month on a weekend.
