Current volunteer opportunities

Task: Fixing small electrical appliances

Time Commitment: Repair Café sessions run once a month on Saturdays from 11am - 2pm. You can also join our Repair Club once a fortnight on Tuesday evenings to learn more about fixing and repair, particularly if you have little or no experience with fixing.

Skills needed:

• Enjoy DIY or fixing stuff,
• Willingness to share fixing skills and/or learn from other fixers,
• Ability to use YouTube to find videos on dismantling and fixing certain items,
• Patience in trying different things if a fault is elusive

What does it involve?

You’ll be working as part of the Repair Cafe volunteer team to:

• Helping set up the repair café (moving tables, taping down extension leads etc)
• Fixing small electrical appliances and devices (not microwaves or other very high power items)
• Discussing with other fixers when they are you are stuck
• Helping with clearing up at the end of a session
• Ensuring you, other volunteers and guests remain safe

Task: Front of house at Forest Fixers’ Repair Cafes at The Mill. Taking details of what people want to be fixed and what the outcome was

Time Commitment: Repair Café sessions run once a month on Saturdays from 11am - 2pm. You can volunteer for a couple of hours but it would be great if you can stay for the whole session. You can also join our Repair Club once a fortnight on Tuesday evenings for volunteers to learn more about fixing and repairs.

Skills needed: Friendly and welcoming manner, written English, enjoying a busy environment.

What does it involve?

You’ll be working as part of the Repair Cafe volunteer team to:

• Asking members of the public for details of their item to be fixed (age of appliance, make, model, what is wrong with it)
• Weighing the item
• Asking members of the public is they are happy for us to photograph them and publish those photographs for our publicity
• Ensuring that the fixers give you details of what was wrong with the item, whether or not they fixed it and any specific issues with that particular model
• Making drinks for fixers
• Keeping an eye on possible safety issues and dealing as appropriate (e.g. children running around, drinks too near electrical equipment)
• Keeping an enquiry sheet (e.g. people coming in to ask when the next cafe is)

Task: recording data on items brought to Repair Cafes at The Mill

Time Commitment: Repair Café sessions run once a month on Saturdays from 11am - 2pm. You can volunteer for a couple of hours but it would be great if you can stay for the whole session. You can also join our Repair Club once a fortnight on Tuesday evenings for volunteers to learn more about fixing and repairs.

Skills needed: Ability to use a web-based data-inputting system and helping the host where necessary

What does it involve?

You’ll be working as part of the Repair Cafe volunteer team to enter the data about the outcome of the repairs on the Restarters’ database and support the host’s if they need to take a break or have several issues to deal with at once.

This involves:

• Asking members of the public for details of their item to be fixed (age of appliance, make, model, what is wrong with it)
• Weighing the item
• Asking members of the public is they are happy for us to photograph them and publish those photographs for our publicity
• Ensuring that the fixers give you details of what was wrong with the item, whether or not they fixed it and any specific issues with that particular model
• Making drinks for fixers
• Keeping an eye on possible safety issues and dealing as appropriate (e.g. children running around, drinks too near electrical equipment)
• Keeping an enquiry sheet (e.g. people coming in to ask when the next one is)

Time commitment:

An estimated basic commitment of 1.5 hours per session which will be flexible according to availability and Mill activities.

Role requirements:

 This role can involve any of the following, as negotiated:

• Taking photographs of activities and events at The Mill for use on our website, social media and publicity materials
• Uploading and sharing photography with comms team
• Ensuring participants have given permission either verbal or written where required

Essential

• Understanding of what makes an engaging photograph for promotional materials and social media 
• Confident talking and working with groups and individuals with friendly manner
• Reliable

Desirable skills

• Familiarity with The Mill, its people and its systems
• Professional experience would be welcome but not essential