About this class Join us in the Global Class either as a Fixer or you can bring in an item to fix, while learning how to do it! We are bringing Repair Cafe to Durham College as a joint effort between Faculty and students who have a passion of helping others and working hands-on with everyday items. Repair Café Toronto is a grassroots, volunteer group that organizes events where neighbours help neighbours learn how to repair. Our events are hosted by local community centres, branches of the Toronto Public Library and other community-based organizations. We throw away vast amounts of stuff. Even things with almost nothing wrong, and which could get a new lease on life after a simple repair. The trouble is, lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how. Knowing how to make repairs is a skill quickly lost. Society doesn’t always show much appreciation for the people who still have this practical knowledge, and against their will they are often left standing on the sidelines. Their experience is never used, or hardly ever. Repair Café is changing all that! People who might otherwise be sidelined are getting involved again. Valuable practical knowledge is getting passed on. Things are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away. This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products. It cuts CO2 emissions, for example, because manufacturing new products and recycling old ones causes CO2 to be released. Repair Café teaches people to see their possessions in a new light. And, once again, to appreciate their value. Repair Café helps change people’s mindset. This is essential to kindle people’s enthusiasm for a sustainable society. But most of all, Repair Café just wants to show how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is. Why don’t you give it a go? Host Lon Appleby, Durham College Founder, Professor Guests Durham College
