Issued on behalf of Community Action Groups Somerset
London, UK – September 2025 — CAG Somerset joined repair activists, educators, policymakers, and innovators from across the globe at Fixfest 2025, the international festival for community repair, held in London this September.
Over the course of the weekend, participants explored urgent issues ranging from the UK’s Right to Repair legislation to digital tools for measuring impact and the wider social value of repair.
On the second day of Fixfest 2025 CAG Somerset delivered a workshop that shone a spotlight on the role of its members repair cafés – not just as places to mend broken items, but as spaces that build resilience, nurture skills, and foster genuine community connections.
Somerset is home to a thriving network of community run repair groups, many of which are CAG Somerset members. With more than 20 in the area, the county is leading the way in the reuse and repair movement. Residents can find a local group online.
Jinny Uppington, CAG Somerset Lead at Resource Futures, said, “Repair cafés are far more than places to fix broken toasters or sew torn jackets: they are powerful tools for strengthening community bonds, encouraging meaningful interaction, and creating local resilience. In an age of environmental urgency and social fragmentation, these volunteer-run spaces offer hope and hands-on solutions.”
The workshop invited attendees to reflect on how repair cafés provide:
• A sense of belonging and opportunities for connection
• Support for local skills and knowledge, providing training and learning opportunities for repairers and visitors to repair cafés
• Catalysts for wider engagement, inspiring sustainable living and community-led initiatives
Fixfest 2025 acted as a weekend of inspiration and collaboration, bringing together people united by the belief that repair is both practical and transformative. While the event’s opening keynote closed with the warning ‘Hope is our greatest weakness’, CAG Somerset’s contribution reframed this perspective – showing how, in practice, hope is also our greatest strength.
