Over the past year, we have been lucky to have the chance to collaborate with SPEC BC to host a number of repair cafes on the UBC campus. Repair cafes are community events, where volunteers help repair clothing, electronics and more free of charge. The purpose of these events is to divert waste from landfills, promote reuse and raise awareness of related sustainability issues. Here I briefly outline some of the practical things we’ve learned about organizing this kind of event. Much thanks to the SPEC organizers and volunteers for helping us learn this!
- Promotion:
- Promote through multiple channels: We advertised through facebook, instagram, posters and university newsletters. Having community partners and university groups share social media posts was useful. Physical posters also brought a significant share of people based on surveys.
- Promote early: During our first event, we didn’t promote as early and fewer people came.
- Planning:
- Plan several months in advance: booking appropriate space and finding volunteers takes time.
- Partner with existing organizations: We really benefitted from collaborating with SPEC who already had expertise in this.
- Venues: A good venue needs
- Good ventiliation
- Many power outlets across the room
- Space for many large tables
- A waiting area / entrance area with a table
- An area to prepare and serve volunteer food.
- Parking available nearby
- Equipment: Ideally volunteers bring their own tools, but having extra tools on hand for less experienced volunteers helps. Things like soldering irons, screwdrivers, multimeters, sewing machines.
- Volunteers: Partnering with SPEC meant that we could reach out to an existing pool of volunteers – otherwise finding qualified volunteers would have been the most challenging part of organizing an event like this. It is important that volunteers feel appreciated though – we offered them free lunch and parking.
- Food:
- Food for volunteers: We found it was a lot more cost effective to make this ourselves (although it took me many hours in the kitchen). Sandwiches, fruit and packaged snacks worked well.
- Coffee for community.
- Day-of: A few more considerations…
- Signage: We had some problems with volunteers and community having trouble finding the space. Putting up a lot of posters nearby helped.
- Preparing food: Remember that some food needs to be prepared the day of
- Directing people, general organizing: someone needs to be dedicated to directing community members to volunteers and answering questions.
- Budgetting: The main costs include
- Food
- Signs and posters
- Venue rental