Repair cafe launch dayOur plans to set up a Repair Cafe are progressing well - we have had 2 meetings now with over 20 people attending and have already been successful in a couple of grant applications. We are pleased that 3 people have come forward to be PAT testers for electrical items, and now we have had it confirmed that we will receive £500 from County Councillor Charlotte Atkin's Climate Action fund, we can crack on and get the PAT unit purchased and the 3 people get the certification we need for our insurance. We are also grateful for District Councillor Lyn Swindlehurst's grant from her Councillors' Community Initiative Fund.  She's also proved herself pretty nifty with a needle and thread when repairing the trimming on Leek Town Crier Bill Lomas's hat.

Mike recently linked up with Chesterfield Repair Cafe, and they have kindly offered to share some of their grant from the national charity Restart, to pay for our insurance for the first year - £250. We have another grant application in with the Community Foundation of Staffordshire for £980 to pay for a reconditioned laptop, room hire, desk lamps, extension leads and table protectors - fingers crossed we are successful. The Rotary Club are also interested in what we are doing, and we have been invited to attend their April meeting to explain the project.

One of our members has offered to look after the risk assessments at our proposed venues - Haregate Community Centre and Foxlowe Arts Centre - another requirement for the insurance. So there is a lot going on in the background to get the various funding, paperwork and equipment in place.

We already have 30 people signed up to help with the project, but we always need more - especially on the main steering group to help with things like designing posters, social media, welcoming new volunteers and do we have a first aider?

Please use this form if you would like to register an interest and we can add you to the Repair Cafe mailing list - https://forms.gle/jUMMRNuFRNqfKEPQ9 So next step is to get the insurance lined up, plan a dummy run in May and then hopefully have our first actual Repair Cafe in June.

Thanks, Mike 
Repair Cafe Lead

STOP PRESS- we have been offered two reconditioned laptops from a project in Stafford that repairs computers that would otherwise be sent for destruction - great to see items being REPAIRED and we can use these not just for Repair Cafe but for any other MCA project / event.