Kenilworth's first Repair Café set to open

Kenilworth United Reform Church will host the RepairCaf Kenilworth

You can bring your items in need of some special care to the town of Kenilworth's first repair cafe.

Repair Café Kenilworth will have its first event on Saturday April 18. The Repair Café Kenilworth will be held from 2 to 5pm at the Abbey Hill United Reformed Church.

There are now over 2,000 Repair Cafés worldwide, and Kenilworth is one of the latest additions to the group, with the opening of the Repair Café Kenilworth.

The premise is simple: enjoy a hot drink, perhaps even a slice of cake, and get stuck in as you work alongside your repairer to try and fix your item.

Jamie Rogers, one of the organisers for the Repair Café Kenilworth, said: "It's basically about being a little more sustainable."

The Repair Café movement started in Amsterdam just over a decade ago by Dutch environmental journalist Martine Postma. It’s estimated that globally, around 2.12 billion tons of waste is sent to the landfill, much of it being less than six months old.

The aim of a Repair Café is to offer a relaxed and informal meeting space, where friends, neighbours and community members can bring their broken items, and a team of skilled volunteers will do their best to repair it, for free, although donations are gratefully received.

The café is setup so that the repairers try and pass on as much knowledge as they can, with the visitor being encouraged to get ‘hands on’ where possible.

There’s also an element of mental health wellbeing, for both volunteers and visitors alike, in part due to the opportunity to meet new people in an informal environment, the experience of doing something positive, and hopefully leaving with a fully functioning item.

Jamie added: "There's evidence to suggest it can be good for mental health and people getting out. I'm 48, and in 2008 I lost my wife to cancer. I went through some terrible times.

"Now what I like to is to try and help people. For me personally, this is a way to get out and meet people and help make a difference to them."

The Repair Café Kenilworth, or ReCK as it’s known to the group, will be every third Saturday of each month.