Updates: All the latest from the teams behind Fixing Factories
At the Camden Fixing Factory
Fixing Factory Outlet
It’s a small start but we’re excited to see the first few ‘Factory Refurb’d’ appliances going to new homes - two rescue toasters, a resuscitated Henry hoover, and this beautiful honey bee lamp (pictured) so far. This is just the beginning of our retail journey, and we’re looking for volunteers keen to develop and grow this new area of activity.
The Joy of a first time fixer!
Bea brought in her non-steaming steam iron and we paired her with one of our fixers. Together they set about investigating why it was misbehaving. Soon Bea was spinning screwdrivers, opening the case, and getting her first use of a digital multimeter for fault diagnosis. Bea returned a fortnight later to fit a new part, reassemble the iron and have that ‘hey presto’ moment when it all works again - did she enjoy the experience? We think the picture says it all
Queen’s Crescent Fixing Factory at 75?
Since opening back in August we’ve held over 75 repair sessions and events - from our regular Tuesday evening Repair Club and Thursday community repair sessions to one-off street parties and pop-up fixing factories across Camden. And the good news is we’re going to be running more events from now on - Repair Club will expand to two nights a week and on the first Saturday of the month we’ll hold a community repair session (skipping coronation weekend).
Happy birthday Brent Fixing Factory!
Just over a year ago, Brent Fixing Factory refurbished its first laptop. Since then we’ve:
Helped to avoid almost 250kg of waste, and over 18 tonnes of greenhouse gas by fixing laptops for reuse and salvaging spare parts from hundreds of laptops.
Trained up almost 100 volunteers in laptop repair. Many of these are young people, who have gained invaluable hands-on fixing skills, as well as general work experience to help them into employment.
Helped families across Brent gain access to the online world. Some of our laptop recipients have been:
Refugees and asylum seekers. Most of these are families with young children. The devices they received have helped them to complete homework, join online classes, call their families and look for work.
Isolated people. Via the NHS our laptops have helped people who are physically housebound, overwhelmed by caring responsibilities, young and unable to attend school.
Job seekers. Our refurbished laptops have helped people to develop their skills search and apply for work.
Join a laptop repair party
We’ve learned that fixing laptops that have been salvaged from a waste site is time intensive. We want to bring together skilled volunteers in May (on a Saturday) for a laptop-fixing marathon, to see how many devices we can get through in a day.
Let us know at hello@fixingfactory.org if you have good laptop skills and want to help!