Imagine a “gifts fair” where neighbors share their knowledge and skills with their neighbors. Need a garment hemmed? Want some help preparing a presentation? Looking for gardening advice? Getting people together to work on anything from fixing a flat bicycle tire to helping a neighbor learn how to do Internet research … that’s the idea behind Bring & Fix.
Bring & Fix is the brainchild of Philippe Granger, Development Manager of the Rushey Time Bank of Lewisham in the Greater London area. “We all have these things around us that niggle us because they need putting back together, mending, gluing, oiling, sewing, cleaning, restoring,” he says. “It could be a practical problem and someone needs to show us how to resolve it.”
Philippe designed Bring & Fix as an intergenerational event to bring together people of all ages to provide solutions for each other. He was selected for the London Leaders program as a result of his creative way of getting people together to seek and provide advice and to “fix” small things for one another. “This will stimulate sustainability and will contribute towards generating resilient and empowered communities,” he says.
Watch Philippe explain his simple and brilliant idea for building community that anyone anywhere can put into action. Read more about Bring & Fix at NewStart. See more about Phillipe in his London Leaders 2011 profile.
