As 2022 comes to a close and the holiday season is fast approaching, we want to celebrate the past year in a festive way.
On the 12th day of Christmas, Restart gave to me 12 new London groups!
Community repair has been blossoming this year, in London and all over the UK. In the capital, 12 new community groups have joined Restarters and we cannot wait to see what they get up to in the new year.
On the 11th day of Christmas, Restart gave to me 11 Mer-IT trainees!
In June, 11 young people were trained by Mer-IT on how to build, repair, and upgrade a PC. The course was funded by and run as part of the Fixing Factories initiative and led to a number of trainees continuing to a work experience placement. You’ll hear a bit more about Fixing Factories later on in this list…
On the 10th day of Christmas, Restart gave to me our 10 year birthday!
We were happy to be able to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the first Restart Party with so many members of our London community this June. It’s been a busy decade of growth, learning, and pushing for change, and we’re so excited to see what comes next.
On the 9th day of Christmas, Restart gave to me 9 conference speeches!
We were honoured to be asked to share our work and spread the message of Right to Repair at so many conferences this year including: Electrical Product Safety Conference, AMDEA’s 2050 – Appliances of the Future: The Road to Net Zero, East Midlands Fixfest, Royal Society of Chemistry, C40 Cities, Low Carbon Design Institute, Zero Waste Symposium 2022, and of course Fixfest 2022. Thanks for having us!
On the 8th day of Christmas, Restart gave to me 8 Brent work placements!
We were super happy that through Brent Fixing Factory we could facilitate some training and education for eight future repairers. We are always looking for ways to work more with repair businesses and this includes encouraging and supporting the next generation of professional repairers.
On the 7th day of Christmas, Restart gave to me 7,764 event attendees!
Let’s take a look at the data. This year, over 30,000 hours of volunteering were logged on Restarters by community groups, with 8,400 items repaired, and 23 tonnes of waste and 246 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided. This is a massive achievement and a sight for sore eyes after a difficult couple of years for in-person repair.
On the 6th day of Christmas, Restart gave to me the 6th annual Repair Day!
This year we celebrated the sixth International Repair Day with the theme ‘Repair Everywhere’. Repairers from all over the world sent in footage of them repairing in the most unusual places they could find in an effort to prove that anyone can repair no matter where they are or the skills they have (see #1!).
On the 5th day of Christmas, Restart gave to me 50 Fixfest sessions!
This year’s Fixfest spanned 50 sessions both in-person and online. Nearly 150 people attended the event in Brussels to share their knowledge and make new connections.
Hear from the attendees themselves on Restart Podcast Ep. 80: Voices of Fixfest 2022.
On the 4th day of Christmas, Restart gave to me our top 4 podcast episodes!
Our 4 most listened to podcast episodes were:
- Restart Podcast Ep. 78: Meet our new(ish) Co-Director, Fiona Dear
- Restart Podcast Ep. 73: Repair Café Aotearoa New Zealand
- Restart Podcast Ep. 72: Maintaining your bike and your community, with Jenni Gwiazdowski
- Restart Podcast Ep. 75: The law and repair: it’s complicated, with Aaron Perzanowski
And did you know that our listener numbers put us in the top 5% of podcasts?!
On the 3rd day of Christmas, Restart gave to me 317 repair businesses!
We made great progress this year on London Repairs – our London based repair directory. We mapped eight new boroughs in West London, with funding from West London Waste Authority and added 147 businesses through this work, bringing our total to 317.
On the 2nd day of Christmas, Restart gave to me 2 Fixing Factories!
Perhaps our most exciting achievement of the year was opening two brand new Fixing Factories in Brent and Camden. It’s a project that we have seen transform from a glimmer of an idea to two physical spaces, and we are so excited to keep developing the project with all of you.
On the 1st day of Christmas, Restart gave to me a fixer in a big tree!
This year for Repair Day, our worldwide fixing community came together to show that repair is everywhere. We had an amazing turnout including from our friends over in Aotearoa, a whole 11,000 miles away who filmed this video of repair happening on a beautiful old tree branch.
What about 2023?
We’re so excited about what’s in store in 2023. Our big plans include Fixfest UK, more progress on Fixing Factories and a new campaign to keep electronics going for longer.
Thanks for being here in our 10th year and here’s to the next! If you are able to support our work, please consider giving what you can.
[Images by Mark A Phillips, licensed under CC BY 2.0.]