If you watch TV programmes like The Repair Shop and Money For Nothing, you’ll be excited to hear about a brand new project being run at Grow Speke community hub.
Build Me Up – Fix Me Up is all about saving useful items and materials from the tip, saving yourself some money and saving the planet. Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority is funding the project, which runs for 20 weeks, starting in October.
Sessions will take place every Tuesday, giving you the chance to learn new skills you can also use at home. You’ll save money by learning how to repair rather than replace them and help the planet by recycling and reusing rather than sending items and materials to landfill.
Local residents have been involved in developing the project and had their say on the skills and work to be included. A number of skilled and experienced crafts people have volunteered to help run the sessions and the project will focus on basic skills to begin with, including:
- Upholstery (cushions and seating)
- Basic bicycle repairs
- Wooden furniture repair and refresh
Grow Speke Project Manager Brendan Cassin said: “Grow Speke began as a community garden, but has quickly become much more than that. Build Me Up – Fix Me Up is about giving people the chance and the confidence to learn and share their skills with others. By reducing, reusing and recycling, we can also continue to minimize our impact on the local environment.”
Local resident John Murphy said
If we all learned some basic repair and recycling skills, we could save ourselves some money and reduce how much waste we produce.
“I think this is a great idea and I can’t wait to get started. The increase in the cost of living is affecting all of us at the moment. If we all learned some basic repair and recycling skills, we could save ourselves some money and reduce the amount of waste we produce.”
Some of the items repaired and recycled will be sold at low cost in The Market Place, a community shop run by South Liverpool Homes. The money raised will be used to buy more tools and equipment. The project will also distribute some items to local families over the festive period.
Demand to take part in the project has been so great that all of the places for the first sessions have now been fully booked.
For more information about Grow Speke and how to book your place on future Build Me Up – Fix Me Up sessions, visit the Grow Speke Facebook page.