Facebook Live - The Repair Movement

Today we hosted a Facebook Live Q & A about all things to do with repair.

We were joined by Ed Carlisle - one of the people behind Leeds Repair Cafe, Jenny Whisker, who amongst many other things runs The Sewing Kind, and Dave Prince, who runs the Bike Hub at Leeds Beckett University.

If you missed it, you can catch up with the Q & A here.

We spoke about how the current situation has given a renewed focus to repair - for some very practical reasons. During lockdown it's been harder to buy new things - or to find people to fix things for us. So repairing things yourself has suddenly become more important.

And we explored the idea of time - and how many of us currently have more time on our hands. Repairing something will often take time - particularly the first time you do something - but the current lockdown situation has given a lot of people a bit more time to work out how to fix things.

We also spoke about the generosity that exists within what you might call the "repair movement" - the fact that people are keen to help others to learn new skills. And about how repairing something can give you a stronger emotional attachment to something like an item of clothing. You're more likely to keep hold of that item longer - and that obviously has big environmental benefits.

We plan to do more on repair over the coming weeks - if you have any ideas for anything we could do, please let us know.

In the meantime, please do follow Leeds Repair Cafe, and The Sewing Kind. And we'd like to say a big thank you to Dave, Ed, and Jenny fo sharing their skills and enthusiasm with us.