A new Repair Café in Sevenoaks has received vital funding from Kent Community Foundation towards set up costs
Following the success of the first Repair Café in Amsterdam which opened in 2009 and the popularity of the BBC’s Repair Shop where expert craftspeople, bring loved pieces of family history back to life, Repair Cafés have been springing up across the world.
Volunteers Dom Haslam, Chris Edmonds, Keith Skinner
Kent Community Foundation received an application from Sevenoaks Repair Café for funding towards setting up this new community resource and meeting the costs associated with the first year.
Jenny Packer, Sevenoaks Repair Café, said, “We are extremely grateful to Kent Community Foundation for the £1987.50 grant that we received for this community project. We held our first Repair Café on 9 April at St Luke’s Church, Eardley Road in Sevenoaks where volunteers were happy to look at small and medium electrical appliances, furniture and wooden objects, bicycles, jewellery, clothing, textiles and IT that required repair. Our Café will be held on the second Saturday of each month, (except for August and December) and we hope that we can repair many treasured or practical items and keep them out of landfill.”
To help to lessen the throwaway attitude of many today, those who bring an item for repair will be encouraged to sit with the volunteer who works on their item to learn more about restoration or mending.
Josephine McCartney, Chief Executive, Kent Community Foundation, said, “We were pleased to fund this project made popular by the much-loved TV show the Repair Shop. Everyone who watches the programme knows the joy of seeing treasured or useful items brought back to life. The very first Repair Café opened in October 2009 in Amsterdam, and it is now estimated that there are over 2000 across the globe. Projects like these bring many benefits to the community including keeping items out of landfill, promoting a culture of repair, and supporting social inclusion through both the volunteers and those attending the Café. We wish them every success.”
Once the Café is established the team are hopeful that donations towards the repairs will cover most costs.
To find out more about the different projects that Kent Community Foundation funds visit www.kentcf.org.uk/funding
About Sevenoaks Repair Café
The Sevenoaks Repair Café will open on the second Saturday of each month, (except for August and December) to repair treasured or practical items and keep them out of landfill.
The next event is on 14 May 2022.
10am – 1pm (last repair registered at 12:20pm), at St Luke’s, Eardley Road
www.facebook.com/SevenoaksRepairCafe
About Kent Community Foundation
Grant-maker Kent Community Foundation has been finding, funding, and supporting some of the smallest voluntary organisations in the county for twenty years. In this time, it has distributed over £50 million to support thousands of small charities and deserving causes where a modest sum of money can make a significant impact.
They are part of a UK wide accredited network of forty-seven Community Foundations who are committed to improving the lives of local people and communities, particularly the most vulnerable, isolated, and disadvantaged by matching those who want to help, with those who need the help.
Responsible for more than eighty philanthropic funds, Kent Community Foundation is unrivalled in its knowledge of local causes and assists individuals, families, and businesses, who want to help, to establish and administer their own charitable funds.
