Repair Café

Last Saturday of the month between 2pm and 5pm. Volunteers welcome!

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We’re very proud of our Repair Cafe and we’d love to see you there. Before we match you with a repairer, you will need to agree to the SEE Change House Rules. Here is everything else you need to know:

  • The Toolbox Repair Cafe is held on the last Saturday of each month (except December).

  • The Repair Cafe is at 8 Hawdon Place, Dickson - between Common Ground and Cafe Stepping Stone.

  • You bring your broken item along; we match you with a volunteer repairer who can hopefully diagnose the problem, and complete the fix for you.

    We advertise our full list of volunteer repairers close to each date - the list usually includes textiles, small electrical, knife sharpening, and general tinkering, computer repair, 3D printing of small parts, and jewelry repair.

    Repairs are free, but please bring replacement parts if you know what they are.

    Our Facebook event page will list available repairers shortly before each event.

  • Good news! There are several repair cafes around Canberra. Most of them (including the Toolbox) are supported by SEE Change.

  • Repair Café International came up with the name for their first repairing event in Amsterdam in 2009. You can read more here.

  • We love to hear from new prospective volunteers!

    We need two kinds of volunteers at the repair café:

    General helpers

    Tasks might include:

    • setting up and packing up

    • welcoming customers

    • helping match repairs to repairers

    • answering questions

    You don’t need repairing skills to be a helper! You will need to get a Working With Vulnerable People Card - this is free and available from Access Canberra.

    Read more about volunteering as a Repair Cafe Helper here.

    Repairers

    Repairers fix items, give advice on repairs, and may teach people how to complete repairs themselves where appropriate. Repairers are needed for:

    • textiles and garments

    • electrical items

    • tech such as mobile phones

    • bicycles

    • outdoor tools such as lawnmowers

    • knife sharpening

    • jewellery repairs

    • toys

    If you have other repair skills not listed, please do let us know. We’d love to be able to offer a wide variety.

    Read more about volunteering as a Repairer here.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the Repair Café, please contact us.