Your Name and Title:
Casey Conlin, Library Sustainability Coordinator
Library, School, or Organization Name:
Mid-Hudson Library System
Co-Presenter Name(s):
John Wackman - Repair Cafe, Hudson Valley & Catskills
Area of the World from Which You Will Present:
Upstate New York
Language in Which You Will Present:
English
Target Audience(s):
Librarians, library staff and administrators, volunteers and community leaders looking to build stronger more connected communities and combat climate change
Short Session Description (one line):
Repair Cafe events in communities and libraries harness the power of the experts we have in all our communities to mend the things we need and love, combatting our throwaway culture and diverting resources from the waste stream, while building connections between neighbors.
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
Repair Cafe leverage the expertise we have in all our communities to provide a locally-sourced universally needed service. As a practicing repair coach I've been lucky enough to build relationships with my neighbors and help restore their toys, appliances, tools, and more to working order. John Wackman has had the same experience helping to organize and fix things at Repair Cafe all over the Hudson Valley and Catskills region in upstate New York. These events have a huge environmental impact saving countless items from ending up in the landfill, saving the energy and resources necessary to create new items, and saving money for the people who want to keep their things. These events also build resilience in the people getting their things fixed, as repair coaches teach people a literacy of things and give them the confidence they need to make their own repairs in the future. But these events have a larger impact on communities; where people can often feel disconnected from their neighbors, these events bring people together. Every repair is a meeting between the repair coach and the person with something that needs to be fixed, and whether the fix that day lasts a lifetime or a few weeks, the connection that has been made between people will last longer, which makes that community more resilient.
Additional Material:
RepairCafe-HouseRules-Nov2019.pdf
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