Chailey Repair Cafe (UK) comes up with an innovation, to continue repairing in corona time. Be inspired by the article below, which we received from Bryan McAlley, founder and coordinator of Chailey Repair Cafe.
A ‘drop off’ service during lockdown
Although we have had to close our physical Repair Cafe this spring, Chailey Repair Cafe‘s talented volunteers have been hard at work offering repair advice online as well as a “drop it on our doorstep” service.
The way that it normally works is that people email us their repair request. We then put this request out to our volunteers and anyone close to the customer who is prepared to take it on agrees to do so. They then make contact with the customer and tell them their address. The customer then drops the item on their doorstep and receives an email when it’s fixed. It’s then collected and we invite the customer to make a donation toward the Cafe… That’s all there is to it!!
Nearly 200 repairs
Since lockdown, we have taken on nearly 200 repairs, including a washing machine, Sony CD player, Kenwood Chef, an internet connection, quad bike, TV, Flymo, dehydrator, hoover, pressure washer, sewing machine, clock, printer, floor lamp, a huge teddy bear and much more. It’s pretty much what we usually do, but in a different way.
People have been incredibly generous and we have now taken nearly £2000 in donations which we will be using to fund storage units for our new location (a church) in 2021.
Keep your Repair Cafe in the public eye
The drop off service is easy to administer, keeps your Repair Cafe in the public eye and is very much appreciated by the local community. Try it!
Brilliant and simple idea intelligently conceived!
I need help with multiple Roof Crystal light confection one pace and I can dropped if I get an address.
And there is a computer been fixed by Repair Cafe thank you very much but we forgot the password we need help with it and can be drop it as well. Thank you very much.
Dear AJ,
Please contact the email address that you’ll find via the link in the post. Good luck!
Best,
the Repair Cafe International team
Thank you for sharing your success! I like how you set up your event.
I work in the Recreation Department at the City of Campbell River in BC Canada. In November of this year we offered a COVID safe Repair Cafe event.
We offered our community safe drop-off times for their items. We had secured volunteers who either picked up the items or had them dropped off at their homes. When items were fixed the were returned to the recreation centre. Customers were contacted and came to retrieve their items. Feedback was positive from our fixers and our customers. We were pleased with the success of our event and hope to offer it again in 2021.