Comments on: Should Repair Cafe volunteers be paid for their efforts?

By: Catherine Peters

Catherine Peters — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 12:42:10 +0000

Hi there
I run a repair Cafe over in the North west area of the UK and i often try to work out how to compensate our volunteers as Tea and biscuits doesn’t feel enough! I do try to share fabrics, other skills and ideas with our volunteers.
I had not heard of Timebank until reading this so thankyou for that!
I absolutely agree that our communities need a regular repair cafe open for their use but that requires a salaried position to manage the venue, insurance, venue hire or rent payments and that would eat into any funds we have available.
It would be great to keep this conversation going and share ideas
Thankyou
Catherine

By: Manny

Manny — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 02:10:48 +0000

A small donation is fine, although gestures of goodwill go a far way and open other doors whether it is access to resource, drive change, support down the tract and/or introductions.

By: rachel

rachel — Sun, 28 Aug 2022 12:29:32 +0000

i think that orgs which have been set up to provide eco options need to consider all implications of “sustainable”. so many run have volunteer labour at their foundation, which is neither sustainable long term, nor ethical. volunteer labour is lost income/time taken away from caring duties… and yet, the beneficiaries are often people who don’t have time to volunteer bc they’re too busy working – & earning $.

what’s more, i’d like repair cafes to make sure they’re valuing all repair work. i’ve heard of $ being paid for electronics repair, but not textiles.

By: Mend It, Australia

Mend It, Australia — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 21:57:16 +0000

This year MIA is requesting and gratefully accepting donations from those seeking repair advice/knowledge or wanting us to attend their repair events. We are not interested in being formally as we are not a business.

After many years of volunteering and rarely having our expenses reimbursed, we felt it was time to explore the value of volunteers in the community repair space. As well as the value of repair and repair skills in general.

Karen and Danny Ellis
Mend it, Australia

https://www.repaircafe.org/en/should-repair-cafe-volunteers-be-paid-for-their-efforts/?fbclid=IwAR0vkOQ6goSwwKkO0dsSAKj2O6riMrWr9ZfWDNbZu7pKWp0caf2NgnpTz3E