Publishing Publishing Publishing

What happened this week?

I published many resources online for people to pick upon and disseminate. 

Our Quetzal Stories of Change event and the list of artists and organisations who will display at the event is on Quetzal Website. On Monday I will send the invitations to all and disseminate across the stratosphere. I also shared the results of our community discussion on what we can do to raise awareness in BAME communities about the trauma of childhood sexual abuse.

I had a great meeting with the team if Let's talk about sexual violence about creating a bigger impacts with their exhibition both in Leicester and Liverpool by paying to a pot of fundings and determining some key activities. Watch this space!

I had a great conversation with a funder about the questions to ask oneself when applying fundings. To give you a bit of a back story, I applied for some funding to tour the exhibition in Leicestershire. We received only part of the funding to support with our counselling activities.the main reasons were that sheer amount of applicants forcing the funders to ask themselves which activities offered by the applicants support the most vulnerable people. In our application, cousnelling was the activity supporting the most vulnerable whilst the exhibition was targeting the general public which may not be vulnerable as such. It was such a great feedback which will help me moving forward in developing better applications. 

Other things, I worked on at Quetzal is our upcoming litter picking event organised by one of our volunteer community connectors beginning of October. I am so looking forward to this. Especially as I am planning one event like it in Braunstone Frith. Let me know if you would like to be involved?

In the Leicester Fixers world, I am posting everyday on our page and engaging in conversation about Leicester Fixers development. One discussion is about how can we make Leicester Fixers more accessible to women and children? The other is if we were to write a book about repair to generate more funds -  who would be the main audience? I have to think more about that.

Other things are slowly developing in the background and I can't wait to share with you more when the time comes. We are with partners claiming more space to create change, we are taking that space and will expand. That is something to look out for!!

Looking forward to hearing how things on your side and how we can collaborate some more. All the best. Have a great weekend!

How can we make repair and fixing spaces more accessible to women and children?

If you browse through social media to see the various community repair groups across the UK, you may notice, pictures after pictures, men are fixing loads of items - electrical, electronic, mechanical even book binding and more - they have the skills and we cannot help to take pictures of them, the process they go through to repair and finally the fixed item.

Where are the ladies who fix? they exist. Can we encourage them to come along to Fixers events? Can we encourage more women to fix as well as children

Across all the repair events I organised over the years - more than 30 events, I met seldomly female fixers. One was a wizz with everything she touched. Another was an expert with repairing sewing machine. A last one found her way around computers. Over the years, I also learnt few tricks up my sleeves and gave it a go to fix few items too. It was about claiming the space to learn by asking 'can I try?'

Writing to one of the female fixers about Leicester Fixers developmenet, she wrote that we ought to do more to understand who fixes, what interest women and children to fix, what can we change at repair events to make it more accessible to women and children. 

The Restart Project has a project Rosie the Restarter - a bimonthly event for women where they learn skills to fix and repair and meet with other repairers. We can get ourselves from it. I also saw photo projects of women fixing items that is also inspiring.

As we are looking at more fundings and reshaping Leicester Fixers, there are many good questions to tackle:

- how can we encourage more women and children to engage with repair events?

- what digital, art or photo project can we develop that demonstrate or show that repair is a practice that is inclusive and accessible to all?

- how can we design events and workshops that are inclusive to all?

- What happens if we move the focus from how successful the repair was to how better the fixer is from the experiences? Would we inspire more people to try to repair?

Let's see as we move forward and bear in mind those various questions how we can slowly develop a plan of action and implement, we may succeed in developing new ways of organising events which are more participative and inclusive.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

Climate Action Leicester Leicestershire, Climate Vigil Invitation Saturday 21st 12-1pm

Leicester Fixers received an invitation to join

• Climate Action Leicester Leicestershire for the launch of their Climate vigil on Saturday 21st 12-1pm at the Clock Tower, Gallowtree Gate in Leicester. 
• The vigil are silent, wearing Black or White, and are to show and signal that local groups care and stand together about the issue of climate change and are concerned for all the people and places suffering from climate change across the world.
• Are you joining?

 

Meeting with FlowFinder

Leicester Fixers met this week with FlowFinder to discuss areas of focus and next steps to consolidate what has been and do better moving forward.

In the next few months, Leicester Fixers will do the following activities:

1. redefine their vision, mission, objectives and value with the input of all the fixers. Here is a first draft
2. Consider their delivery focus against their aims, objectives, funding streams and operations
3. Develop their delivery plans

A meeting will be organised to discuss some of the elements with people working together to repair and mend items.

Leicester Fixers

Leicester Fixers is a community of citizens that work together to mend the broken, reduce waste going into landfills, and campaign for the right to repair. We operate under the umbrella of Transition Leicester which aims to create more resilient and sustainable communities.

They do this by 

• Sharing tips and suggestions on how to repair 
• Promoting repair and upcycling businesses
• Organising Restart Parties and Festival - e.g. Green Festival of Making and Mending
• Delivering Outreach Programme to support citizens to start their own repair group - e.g. Leicestershire Community Repair Outreach Programme
• Delivering presentations and talks to inspire others to start their own repair community
• Contributing to research and discussion about the Right to Repair and the factors influencing prosumers to repair
• Delivering training and workshops
• Participating in National and International Days of Repair

How can you connect with Leicester Fixers

• FB Group
• Instagram
• Restarters
• Footpaths Leicester
• Youtube
• Website

Activities

2014-2015

• Founding Leicester Fixers
• Designing and delivering Leicester Fixers Restart Parties
• Green Festival of Making and Mending

2015-2019

• Restart Parties at the Leicester Hackspace
• Outreach in Leicester Wards
• Leicestershire Outreach

2021

• Leicester Fixers Website

2022

• St Matthews Big Green Swap Shop

Give us your views on the first draft of Leicester Fixers vision, mission, objectives and values

Leicester Fixers is in the process of redefining its vision, mission, values, as well as its delivery focus and operations.

Here is what they drafted so far and we are looking for feedback, please comment:

Our vision is

• To make repair always the best, easiest, cheapest option for citizens and their broken items in Leicester

Their mission is 

• To empower individuals and organisations to repair and mend in Leicester 

Their objectives

• Reduce Carbon Emissions 
• Increase number of items repaired
• Improve Communities Connection and Wellbeing
• Improve Individual and Community Training
• Achieve Financial Sustainability

Their Values

• Fairshare, 
• People Care
• Earth Care
• Embrace an asset-based community approach where all are recognised and identified as having a gift that they can share with their community

What do you think?

There is definitely more work to do on this - It is the first draft - Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

Email LeicesterFixers[at]Gmail.com

Tools with Leicester Fixers

Leicester  Fixers won some time ago a £500 voucher to get tools from Ifixit. It was a thrilling gift to receive. This week, I moved forward in defining the toolkit we will order by making some enquiries to Loughborough Fixers as well as Leicester Fixers. Thanks to those who came back to me, I will study your reply and make an order. Even though, there is no plan as such to have any repair event in Leicester in the upcoming year, Thinking about it is a start in possibly doing something about it. 

I also had a discussion with Durgha from Flow Finder about her coaching consultancy services I am considering to use to support Leicester Fixers. She suggested for me to restart our newsletter updating our mailing list about our activities and gather a bit energy there. 

About my personal repair, I returned to Woodgate Computer this week to fetch a data stick and bring some mobile phone. I had four in total. Amongst the four, they took three to give me a quote. Amongst the three, they told me only one is worth repairing. Oh well, I may fix the rest though Leicester Fixers.

What about you? How did your repair week go?

Writing a book about Leicester Fixers and Repair

Writing a book for a general audience came into my awareness for few weeks now with friends suggesting to turn my doctorate into a book. Then, I was invited to celebrate a girlfriend birthday in Nottingham. Unable to drive to the destination, I was picked up by a newly published author. We spoke all the way there and back about the process of writing a book and some of steps involved in delivering the written product. In the evening. I discussed some of the elements with another friend who told me that she will help me find the necessary funding to make this happen. My first book is about Leicester Fixers, Repair, the Doctorate and more. I want to be able to raise some funding to continue and expand the development of sustainable communities within Leicester,  Leicestershire and Rutland. Through the book, I want to be able to raise necessary funds to do this. Fingercrossed, this will be possible. 

If you would like to support me with this project, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Asset-Based Community Workshop in London, March 13 & 14 2019

This is the workshop you need to attend if you are involved with communities. It is the ABCD you need to promote Citizen Participation at a neighbourhood level. It is a two day workshop, hosted by Cormac Russell, exploring asset Based Community Development and Sarah Burns (Head of Communities) from Croydon Voluntary Action.

If you are not familiar with Cormac Russell, watch this amazing video of him where he explained how we can support community by helping each one of their members how special each of them are.

I was first introduced to the ABCD programme by a colleague of mine called Deana Wildgoose she run the Hero Project CIC where they empower communities with tools so they can reach their dr

" Nurture Development have mentored Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA) in Asset Based Community Development since early 2011. CVA have gained a wealth of local community building stories to share and are now delighted to partner with Nurture Development to offer a UK wide programme of accredited training for citizens, practitioners and agency leaders. This new training programme will start with a two-day workshop, hosted by Cormac Russell, exploring Asset Based Community Development." - Sarah Burns (Head of Communities), Croydon Voluntary Action


Asset-Based Community Development workshop in London, March 13 & 14, 2019. hashtag#ABCD: A Practical Guide to Promoting Citizen Participation at neighbourhood level. For every paying practitioner, a resident/citizen they serve receives a free place!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/asset-based-community-development-workshop-for-london-those-working-in-vcses-voluntary-community-tickets-55269437375

My name is Marie Lefebvre. I  am writing because I want to come to your Asset-Based Community Development Workshop. 

I will be bold. I want a ''free'' place. 

Our community group - Leicester Fixers - nor myself can possibly afford £200. However, I know it will be valuable for our scheme.

I run Leicester Fixers, a community of amateur repairers who want to inspire people to use their gifts to fix their surrounding environment. I organise with a mere £1800 a Green Festival of Making and Mending which welcomed 600 people plus a serie of events throughout 2015. We ran approximately 25 repair cafes in Leicester. This year, we received a small grant from Leicestershire County Council to create 6 repair groups across Leicestershire. We have already created 5 in less than 6 months. I do not lack the energy for bringing people together. I am still to learn how to make it more financially viable.

It is primordial for us to scan the skills and abilities of our community. If I am aware of the tools available to me to strenghten my skills, it will be easier to recruit, inspire people to share their gifts. I want to do better in helping people to reflect on how special they are and training those around me to become better listeners. Often, people do not feel they are special because they do not make a living out of their skills. We have the issue when we do collaborative events with other organisations that our repair activities are less financially rewarded than food stalls, yet it has tremendous value in connecting people together. It can be demotivating for people to get involved any further. How can we distribute more evenly all assets a community has. How do we unlock some of the assets?

They are so many questions I need to have answer to.

I will ever so grateful if a place is made available for me to come along.

If it is not possible, please keep me on your mailing list, we never know how my situation and the group may evolve in the years to come. I will be for sure trying to come to one of your workshop.

Best wishes

We are delighted to announce this two-day workshop to all ABCD enthusiasts in the Greater London Area and to those working in VCSEs throughout the UK. We are particularly pleased to be offering this along with a wider programme of training with our strategic partners Croydon Voluntary Action. They have demonstrated exemplary commitment to the ABCD principles over the last eight years and have enabled asset based community driven change to take root in many neighbourhoods across Croydon. Together we look forward to demystifying the theory and the practice of Asset-based Community Development and supporting you to deepen your practice and impact.

This workshop will:

• Give you an understanding of the history of ABCD, relating it to your experience of community development.
• Explain the 5 guiding principles of ABCD in both theory and practice.
• Identify the 6 building blocks or assets of community building, exploring how these can be identified, connected and mobilised in the neighbourhood context.
• Share the 8 touch stones of community building, offering stories and examples of their application.
• Identify the ABCD Tools for Change: e.g. Learning Conversations & Asset Mapping.
• Involve you in activities and exercises that you can then use in practice where you live and/or work.
• Use stories and case studies of ABCD in action from our Learning Sites, in the UK and around the world, to highlight effective practice.

To learn more about ABCD in Action check out Cormac Russell's TEDx from Exeter 2016 click here

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This is the part of the Nurture Development series of UK-wide ABCD Workshops. We have intentionally organised the workshops to:

• Be the most affordable
• Most credible
• Most citizen and practitioners focused

Workshops on Asset-Based Community Development available anywhere in Europe. Our invitation to practitioners attending is to invite a resident you are working with, in a local neighbourhood, who you know to be passionate about community building and weaving their community together.

Lunch: Light lunch is provided

Cost: £200 per practitioner 

Duration: 10am - 4pm

Ticket holders are entitled to invite one member of their local community to join them on the two days at no additional cost.

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What is ABCD?

ABCD invites us to work beyond administrative boundaries and understand that people, their families and communities, have unique competencies that cannot be replaced by competent professional intervention. Since the only people who can build community are the people who live sleep and work there.

The starting point for communities, funders, commissioners, and practitioners isn't necessarily a different one, instead of starting with a focus on what’s wrong, ABCD invites us to start with a focus on what’s strong so that we can use what’s strong to address what’s wrong and make what’s strong even stronger.

That means paying attention to assets that build community connection and power. However, these assets might not always be apparent, in fact, they are often invisible. This workshop will pay attention to the importance of making the invisible visible, offering both underpinning theory and examples of practice.

For more details on the workshop format and programme please contact info@nurturedevelopment.org and to find out more about the ABCD approach itself click here

Let's Repair with Market Harborough Fixers

IT IS TIME FOR EVERYONE TO JOIN Market Harborough Fixers specifically if you live in and around Market Harborough, have an item to fix, have the skill to fix, have the dream that one day every single town and villages have a repair café every month!

Share this post with your contacts in Leicestershire

Yesterday, Divya and I travelled from Leicester to Canvas Cafe in Great Oxendon, approximately 2 Miles Away from Market Harborough.

We were welcomed by Lara and Jen who run the Canvas Café and the Country Bumpkin Yurts and Steven who is running a food growing project on site to support people with mental health issues. He is also involved in a number of projects in the area.

I brought a projector from the Leicester Hackspace, yet it was easily figured that a lovely conversation around a cup of tea was more appropriate.

We received pertinent questions when it comes to trying to organise a repair café, the possible footfalls, how to manage expectations of the visitors and what type of support do we provide as part of the Leicestershire Outreach Programme.

The Good News is that a Repair Café will happen in Market Harborough this year - possibly around May Time.

The Condition to make it a success and specifically to ensure that more repair events happen in the area is for you to join Market Harborough Fixers NOW

Why?

Because TOGETHER, WE ARE STRONGER

So, Drop a hello on the group and let them know what you can repair or fix - maybe you are a good communicator and you want to share the news, or you may be good at finances and want to support with your accounting skills.

We need to know what type of items you have at home that needs repairing.

Say what it is, you may receive some suggestions on how to fix before the event.

This is a blog for you if

This is blog is for you if you are serving families, mother, father, children in Leicestershire to
- To take care of what we have in common: The planet
- To encourage them to be open and inclusive of others
- To support them in sharing their gifts for the local economy to be more resilient.

If you tick more than one of this boxes, i am inviting you
- To Get inspired by the stories of people who are in Leicestershire trying to enact change and empowered people to direct their lives
- To share those stories to people around you so they can get inspired
- To submit your story.

Why? Because the power of stories can change the world as long as they are shared widely.

So get sharing!

About me

My name is Marie. I live in Leicestershire since 2012. In my first year of arrival, i engaged with Transition Leicester, Positive Money and Footpaths Leicester. I ran the positive money leicester group.  I organised events, a discussion group and the Money workshop to help people reflect upon their relationship with money. I also train as a facilitator to run a Footpaths group to support group and families to reduce their carbon footprint. End of 2014, Zina Zelter from Footpaths and I, we decided to run a year of events culmutating into a day of festival: The Green Festival of Making and Mending. From the festival, Leicester Fixers emerged and has been running Restart Parties since May 2015. In 2018, The project received a grant from Leicestershire County Council to help set up 6 repair communities across Leicestershire. It is currently the main project I am working on.

Apart from those projects, I work and study. I freelance for The Crop Club a social enterprise which supports people to grow food. I have a certificate in Permaculture and teaches from time to time at the Permaculture course in Leicester. I am also a doctorate from Loughborough Design School. My thesis is on the factors influencing user repair propensity. I support students with their work.

Outside of it all, i am a keen dancer (salsa), a beginner violonist, i draw with wax crayons and garden. I live with my husband, embrace our mixed heritage and spend lot of time with our family.

in facilitating a Footpaths Leicester grouprun projects to engage family's members with different communities of knowledge and this mainly through events.

The blog provide an account of the progress of some of the projects and how you can get involved and it features different initiatives in Leicestershire that engage the public on enbironmental and social

Beyond: The Microwave

A microwave is such a handy tool, so convenient,

It warms the food in a blink of 1min30s.

Every worker wants a microwave.

It is 7.30pm, you arrive finally at home. 

The bus commute from your work office to the confine of your living room took an hour. 

You are exhausted. 

Sitting down in front of the computer all day wore you out. 

You are starved.

Your belly is rumbling.

You need food it is a matter of survival.

Hopefully, your level of organisation has paid off. 

You have food in the fridge. 

Thanks to your to-do-list called ''Get Ready For Work''.

On Sunday, you prepared a week worth of dishes to keep you going. 

They are all in beautifully compact Tupperware you bought in your favourite or closest super shop.

You open the fridge door, you take one Tupperware, close the fridge door, take your favourite bowl on the drying rack, open the Tupperware, pour the content in. 

A warm feeling wraps up your heart and your belly.

You open the door of your microwave.  

Pop the content inside.

You love the sound of the door closing.

You press the start button to get it in motion. 

Once, twice, three times.

It is not working.

Guess your feeling

...

You unplug it, replug it.

Still nothing.

Millions of thoughts are travelling in your mind and two questions:

WHO IS THIS MICROWAVE IN MY KITCHEN COS I NEVER MET IT BEFORE?

AND WHY IS NOT RESPONDING TO ME?

The microwave when working is always ready-to-hand. Heidegger was the one who coined the term ''ready-to-hand'' to describe how infrastructures and objects that surround human beings are at any time ready to be used to produce a certain outcome. It is only when the item breaks that the real item reveals itself and become ''objectively present'' as Heidegger put it. 

When the microwave broke, you realise how central this machine is to you as everything associated with it became destroyed: the start button, the microwave door, the waves of energy, the bowl of pasta, the pursued warm meal in front of a favourite show.

What to do? 

Repair it?

No, first, you want to find a solution to your cold meal:

eat it as it is, 

warm it up in a pan, 

take up the courage to pop at your neighbour to ask if you can get a microwave fix, 

Go to a friend living 10 min drive from your house

check gumtree on your phone to get a new one, 

pop to your favourite 24hours shop, 

go get some takeaway. 

It is a matter of survival.

Death - Repair - Live

The world is bound to go to entropy. 
It constantly decays.
Natural elements - Moisture, Damp, Expanding Ice - wear away the material fabric as they break, rot and decompose.
Animals and insects breed, chew, poop.
War sets in between planet earth inhabitants.
Humans make mistakes over and over again 
They also constantly exult aggressive tendencies towards others and themselves

The entropic tendency can be likened to Freud's notion of a death instinct. The concept of the death instincts was initially described in Beyond the Pleasure Principle 1920, where Freud concluded that all instincts fall into one of two major clasesses: life instincts or death instincts. The two classes are believed to be responsible for our behaviour. 

The life instincts, sometimes referred to as sexual instincts, deal with basic survival, pleasure and reproduction. Death instinct emerges because as Freud put it: ''the goal of life is death''. 
There is both an inward and outward expression of those death wishes. Aggression is a good example of an outward death instincts. Suicide, depressive tendencies and self-sabotaging are direct inward towards the subject.

Freud noted that people who experience a traumatic event would often reenact that experience. From this, he concluded that people hold an unconscious desire to die but that the life instincts largely temper this wish.

Some research found that in countries where the homicide rate is low, suicide rates tend to rise. It was interpreted as the belief that humanity has a compelling need to destroy oneself or others (Comer, 2011).

Now that you aware of your innate tendencies, what can you do with it?
Destroy, Repair, Live

Destroy the page with random words, Repair it with a story, Share it.
Destroy the shirt, Repair it with embroidery, Wear it.
Destroy your hair, Let them grow once more, Take a picture each day.
Destroy the bowl, Mend it with the glue of gold, Have a pot a noodle

Time will tell as you mend yourself in the world, howall this is.

Forearm yourself with the Politics of Time and Repair the broken work-centred economy - after reading ''the Refusal of Work'' by David Frayne.

This weekend, I read the Refusal of Work by David Frayne.

In the book, he defines work and exposes critical accounts of different authors on how work is valued and regarded as a morally good behaviour to engage in so that the individual can be financially independent to buy more stuff at the detriments of its own health and wellbeing and the integrity of the natural environment.

He, then, shares the experiences of a number of individuals who refused to work the typical 40 hours a week in favour of working either fewer hours or not at all. The Whys, the Hows and the ongoing tension the participants of the research experience between what is currently seen as an ideal behaviour and their own provide the reader with a mirror to reflect upon their own working or non-working situation.

The work of André Gorz on The Politics of Time punctuates the writing in a beautiful manner and I am thankful to have been introduced to his thoughts.

Finally, He invites us to get ready to open the debate and fix the work-centred economy. He invites everyone to:

• Consider the impact of work centred society on the natural sphere. Look, you may be so consumed with work, you may not be able to self-produce your own needs (cook, repair, clean, educate your children, engage in contemplative activities) and you are spending all your earned income on products and services to fulfil them (take away, new gadgets, household services, nursery, Netflix). What happen to the broken, what happened to the packaged, what happened to the children that do not spend time with their parents?
• Consider the impact of work-centred society on your own health and wellbeing. Look, You may be tired and exhausted, you may be stressed, your back may hurt and your eyes may twitch. People around you and self-help books may ask of you to find a better work-life balance, Maybe you should ask everyone why we do not collectively ask for reduced hours of work.
• Get in touch with those who are already living a life more in tune with their body and their breathing, their surrounding environment and their community.
• Ask yourself why you should be grateful for having a 40hour a week job, with 1-hour commute each way, two days for resting and 5 weeks holidays of work. Question the culture of gratitude and begin a process of entitlement by asking for what you need.
• Give yourself and others the opportunity to dream for different worlds and utopias where you have the freedom and autonomy to design your own life with no structural and social pre-settings.

For more here

Graham & Thrift Out of Order

In the article put forward by Graham & Thrift, he strive to put  forward that repair and maintenance is the central component of the development of economies. and a basis of our survival

there is different way the article canbe quite useful within the thesis.

First, in indicating that repair provide an opportunity for the being to actually learn and develop oneself through a process of innovation, indicating there and then that repair is the premist of innovation, it is when soemthing break that theindividual tend to develop himself by trying to find way to repair the item
Second, that repair processes that happen in citieiss and in everyday life tend to be hidden from mot people who cannot see it happenign by reading report or hearing report when they are actually happening. people can only foresee the item as well when the alter is broken, when it works they cannot actualyy xsee the item but only focus on its function.
there is all the chapter about e-waste at the end that shows the extent to which the lack of engagement of repair create a number of negative externalities.
thereis also the way repairer are perceived by society as low class people.
then we have the all chapter about E-waste

Ackerman design for product care

In the paper by ackerman,  the main intention is to delineate the research project. She decided to look at product care and define the motivation to take care of a range of products. She set her research within the content of the xircular ecinomic since it is put forward that we shall actually they to repair the items first and she put forward that by understand g the user we will be able to actually develop design interventions between the user and the product.

There is a few thing that i can take from it first the way she presented the liner ecinomic in my introduction.
Then the way she actually put forward the definition of product care. It will Help me to define appropriately how i differentiate my research from her.
I will definitely have to put her research within repair as a strategy as well as design interventions to repair.
There is also an elements within my discussion that i need to put forward in relation to design for sustainable behaviour that we shall not only look at the interaction between the user and the product bit also consider within the development of our solution, the interaction within a set community.

Leicester Fixers focuses on feeling successful and invite others to do the same - A wink to Eric Barker Book - Barking up The Wrong Tree.

Recently, I was on BBC Radio Leicester on behalf of Leicester Fixers to make a call out to communities across Leicestershire. We have plans to support them with setting up their own repair events and be as successful as we. Thanks to Ben Jackson and its team for inviting us on the show to share our voice. You can catch me on iPlayer at this link from 1hr42mins to 1hr50mins into the programme.  

With 26 events under our belt and our successes in changing people perspectives,
a supporter asks me after listening to the show,
why we are not getting paid for what we do?

Yes, the return on investment in monetary term is currently elusive. Hopefully, there are other ways to measure success.

I came across Eric Barker book - Barking up The Wrong Tree - where he goes through tonnes of social sciences articles and books to identify measures of success.

He suggests focussing on the feelings of being successful because it could take a while, a long time before one reaches the financial goals he set for himself.

One study of a group of researchers who conducted 60 interviews with high-achieving professionals and surveyed 90 high-level executives support his argument on why we shall focus on to feel successful.

Through the study, the researchers tried to identify what prevented them to be successful. After combining the data, they identified four areas of focus to feel successful.

Achievement

Legacy

Significance 

Happiness

Let me illustrate how Leicester Fixers feel successful every single day.

Achievement - We feel like we WINNING. 

At every event, we repair an item that would otherwise end up in a landfill. We give people a new experience. We get wonder in their eyes and we always succeed to make them smile. The Restart Project provides us with a tool to record all our repair and this generates some stats as evidence of our achievements. We have many pictures as testimonies of our successes too.

Legacy - We feel like we are INFLUENCING others in a positive way. 

Trough conversations at events, on the radio, at a stall in the Riverside Festival in Leicester, we share why we repair. We repair for connection and education - the basis of a healthy social and economic system - not solely for environmental reasons. When people get it, it feels good!  Also, our volunteers improve their repair skills overtime because they keep on coming to our events. It feels good too.

Significance - We feel like we NEEDED. 

Waste is an issue. Every year, 1 million tonnes of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment in England alone find their way in landfills. The impacts of electrical and electronic equipment are tremendous both environmentally and on humans quality of life here and elsewhere. 

Social isolation is also an issue. If people do not feel like they can turn to other humans when they have a problem and prefer buying something new to quickly fix their despair. It is not a sustainable solution in the long run. Waste will come to haunt them eventually. When someone sends us a message on Facebook for help and advice, it feels good to be needed and to be connected.

Happiness - We feel like we are ENJOYING life. 

Our repair events are a party. We have people. We have cake, fruit and juice. We have the tools to play with and broken items. We have pictures taken to remind us we had a good time. Time flies, we cannot feel it. When the sun comes down and we go back home after the event, we smile inside - it was a good day. We are happy to have filled it and to feel it wholeheartedly.

Can you see how successful we are? 

Coming back to money answering the question of our supporter; we will achieve financial returns eventually. 

It is a matter of making YOU in Leicester and across the UK believe FIRST that repair matters and that what we do matters too. Money and its exchange are based on a social agreement between two parties. Believe that we matter and reward us accordingly with your time, money or other resources  > We will grow and support more people across Leicestershire. Don't believe in us, we will remain an ephemeral phenomenon in the memories of humankind. 

So what can you do to support Leicester Fixers ! Get in touch NOW, donate, volunteer.

Use the tool too to identify your own success ;) and listen to Eric Barker here

The call out - leicester fixers

Leicester Fixers - The plan 2018-2019

The plan.

Mobile Phone, Joy & Pain

Relying on one single device AKA phone to do multiple tasks is at first appealing:

Calling texting, messaging, twitting, facebooking, youtubing, whatsapping, deezering...

But it can be also a real source of frustation and suffering AKA Pain

First, your phone cannot stop fidgeting and tweeting like a bird...
It is not in a tree doing so.
It is on your lap and all it wants is to be soothed.
What a great source of distraction to be all the time connected to this devil child.

The other thing, it bugs and freezes when it decides to reject your attention. What a chocolate?
I found myself starting an application, the latter closed as if my phone did not want to speak to me.

One day, I decided to remove Facebook. My phone started to misbehave.

I decided to remove it because I do not like the idea that they can log what I am browsing online through my device  (read carefully details when updating the app on your phone, you will be surprised).

When disablong the app, a message appeared  saying that some applications will misbehave if I disable facebook as it is an inbuilt app of my phone.

I felt trapped by facebook and android as a whole.

So to avoid any such pain, sing for yourself, connect with people for real and get a phone that just call and text, it will reduce the suffering :p