Individuals with an interest in repair and reuse are encouraged to sign up to the UK’s second Repair Café conference taking place this Friday (June 9) at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Farnham.

The free-to-attend event will take place from 10am to 5pm, hosted by Martin Charter, chairman of Farnham’s Repair Cafe and director of UCA’s Centre for Sustainable Design, and will bring together key members of the repair cafe community.

Speakers will discuss the practical issues facing cafes, such as engagement of youth, managing growth, recruitment of repairers, as well as best practices and lessons learnt. The day is aimed at existing repair cafes, those interested in starting up their own, or people considering volunteering.

The first repair cafe was established in 2009 in the Netherlands as a grassroots community-led workshop, aimed at extending the life of products. Since then, the number of repair cafes has expanded significantly.

The Repair Cafe Foundation (RCF) highlights over 2,600 repair cafes globally. In England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales there are now estimated to be over 250 repair cafes.

The environmental benefits of repair cafes reinforce the importance of social action and community values. And, as the circular economy, right to repair, and reuse evolves, repair cafes are playing an increasingly important role.

Anyone wishing to attend the conference is asked to sign up by emailing [email protected] in advance.

Farnham’s Repair Cafe will return at The Spire Church in South Street this Saturday (June 10), from 10am to 1pm.

With six repair stations available, you can bring in up to three products for repair including electrical appliances, laptops, mechanical devices, bikes, furniture, and clothing.

But the repair cafe does not complete repairs on petrol-driven products, industrial devices, three phase power tools, mobile phones, or alter clothing.

If you have a larger item or an unusual repair, email Ros at [email protected] to assess the feasibility of repair.

The repair café session is free and registration is not required. However, if you want to avoid the queue, you can pre-complete two forms that can be downloaded from the repair forms section on the cafe’s website frc.cfsd.org.uk