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A café where islanders can enjoy a tea or coffee while having small items fixed by someone with the right skills to repair them could soon be set up in the East of the island.
Jersey's original repair café, which is based in St. Brelade, has been running since late 2020 and has over 60 volunteers.
Visitors to the already existing repair café can bring their broken items from home and sit with the specialist as they start the repair, participating in the process by helping where possible.
The idea is to encourage people to take ownership of the repair work, watch how it is done, and perhaps learn enough to have the confidence to repair things themselves in future, rather than replace them when they go wrong.
Jennifer Bridge, who posted the idea for a Grouville-based repair café on social media, was inspired by the Western repair café.
She said: "It’s really well run and has a fantastic reputation. I needed something repaired and I didn’t have the skill or tools to do it."
I’m setting up a repair café for the East of the island. If you’re interested pls dm me. After the election, I’ll set up a meeting. Grateful thanks to the amazing inspiring team at St Brelade’s repair café who have offered friendship, wisdom & knowledge in getting this going. pic.twitter.com/4ybp1P3XR9
— Jennifer Bridge (@JennBridge) June 13, 2022
Jennifer added: "I want to start a café in Grouville because the local aspect is really important in terms of bringing people together. It also has the advantage that people can walk or cycle to the venue if they wish.
"One of the key attributes of the St. Brelade repair café is the bringing together of local people in a fun social setting for a common purpose.
"This seemed like a great idea and something I wanted to be involved in so I contacted Simon Langlois, one of the organisers at St. Brelade. He was incredibly helpful and has been very generous with his time in sharing with me how to get a café started."
Pictured: The new repair café will be based in Grouville, and will serve the east of the island.
Jennifer initially posted about setting up the café on the 'Environmental Grouville' Facebook page, as she believed that the social, environmental and educational aims of repair cafés aligned with the aims of this group.
She then posted her idea for an Eastern repair café publicly online, and was delighted to receive "a number of offers of support and encouraging comments".
She said: "I now plan, after the election, to organise a public meeting at the Parish Hall (subject to the new Connétable’s approval, of course) to give a presentation to explain the history of repair cafés, how we propose to run this one and to gauge further interest.
"Simon Langlois, Max Livesey and Adam Currie - the founders of St. Brelade’s repair café - have kindly offered to attend the meeting in order to help up get the café up and running!"
Anyone who would like to get involved in helping with the setting up of the new repair café is asked to direct message Jennifer on social media.
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