Repair Café volunteer - Meet and Greet Volunteer

Bexley residents are invited to get small household items repaired for free while they enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. The Repair Cafe, which takes place at Sporting Club Thamesmead, will help local people to save money by giving old appliances a new lease of life. Experienced repair professionals will be on hand to work on small electrical items, including kettles, toasters, vacuum cleaners, games consoles, air fryers, blenders and lamps. They may also bring other things such as clothing, toys and small furniture to be fixed/mended. After handing over their broken items, visitors to the Repair Cafe will be able to get refreshments while they wait.

The cafe is being organised by Peabody and funded by Lovell, in partnership with repair and reuse social enterprise The Restart Project. The London Borough of Bexley and Cory are also key partners in this role, encouraging waste minimisation.

During February to March social enterprise, Kundakala, will also be on hand to carry out repairs. It offers a free sewing alterations service to fix clothes on the spot.

We are looking for volunteers to help run this event from meet and greeters, tea/coffee servers to experienced fixers. Please see our other volunteer roles to find out more: Fixer volunteers and Refreshments volunteers.

Once you have applied for this role a member of the repair café team will be in touch to have a chat about what you would like to do and answer any questions you may have. We will aim to contact you by email withing 7 days. You will then be invited to visit one of our repair cafes in February or March so that you can see what happens during the actual event.

What skills do I need?

To meet and greet people as they arrive at the Repair Café. To be the friendly face - to record peoples details as they arrive.

The Meet and Greet volunteer informs visitors of the house rules in the Repair Café and makes sure they fill in the registration form, directs them to the correct fixers, explains how the café works in terms of where to go and what types of items can be fixed. They can also note any feedback from residents so that we can make it as good an experience as possible.

There is scope to expand the role in terms of organisation, administration, hospitality on the day, allowing you to use your skills and initiative to do this.

A rewarding experience – a key role on community focus where you can be passionate about helping at a community event that also benefits the environment. Those who like to meet and greet the public and help with simple queries. You will also gain key experience/knowledge on waste and recycling.

A minimum of one session is required, but ideally a regular commitment would be preferable. If you are unable to do this, we still would like to hear from you as we are very flexible.