About Us

Frustrated with the unsustainable growth of landfill and waste, the international repair café movement started in Amsterdam and now there are over 1,800 repair cafés around the world.

Repair Cafe Wales was founded by Joe O’Mahoney and Cerys Jones in April 2017 to start and support repair cafés in Wales.

Repair Cafe Wales has been awarded funding from the organisations below including a grant of £49,976 from the Welsh Government’s Landfill Disposals Tax Communities Grant Scheme via Wales Council for Voluntary Action to save a wide variety of items from landfill by offering repair café sessions at locations in Cardiff, Newport, Port Talbot, and Swansea. The funding helps us to also help the community – by developing practical skills so they can fix their own possessions and build resilience.

In our aim to become self-sufficient, we also hold fixing masterclasses, corporate events, and upcycling demonstrations.

Repair café events reduce waste, teach skills and build community resilience. The events are run by volunteers who will try to fix anything that is brought to them (though with specialist items, do contact your local repair café.

Repair cafés are started by residents, with our support, and run by the local community. We can provide advice and support on everything from organisation, processes, insurance, fundraising, volunteer recruitment and social media.

At each repair café event, somewhere between 20 and 50 members of the public bring their damaged or broken household items for repair/advice. Typical items include electrical goods, technology, ornaments, clothes, bicycles for basic maintenance & guidance, jewellery and more! The repair café volunteers then attempt to repair the items. The visitors are encouraged to join in and learn how their item is being fixed so that they can attempt similar repair in the future.

We are a not-for-profit Community Interest Company with a management board.

Thinking of starting a repair café?

Repair cafés are a fun, social way to combat the general frustration with wasted materials, resources and a loss of skills. It’s a community, a space for empowerment and the site of transformation where people’s relationships with their household items shift from consumer to owner.