Educational Impact
Repair is important, but not regularly practiced in our economy. We're building our community's skillset as well as educating folks about the value of reduced and responsible consumption.
Volunteer Mentorships
Volunteer mechanics working with Retrospect Resilience learn practical, tangible repair skills from our mechanic mentors while working on all sorts of repair projects from kitchen appliances, motorcycles, lawnmowers and everything between. We aim to build confidence and a real sense of empowerment for all.
Consumer Education
Through our interactions with volunteers and repair customers, we aim to bring light to the realities of overconsumption, waste, and planned obsolescence. We as consumers do not often pay for the full intrinsic value of products we consume due to large-scale/obscured supply chains and extractive economies.
Memberships & Collaborative Repair Space
We offer annual memberships for folks to do repairs on their personal projects with tools, space, and assistance provided by Retrospect volunteers. We ask for a small annual fee to cover insurance.
Public Policy (Future Program)
We're seeking opportunities to influence policy that promotes manufacturers to design repairable products, to make supply chain and repair manual documentation available, and to make parts both available and affordable.
Economic Impact
Repair keeps more dollars in the community versus money spent purchasing new items manufactured elsewhere. An economy with a healthy repair industry provides more jobs and more income to its local citizens. Repair shifts the control to the consumer, offering more options than those provided by the globalized manufacturing complex.
Repair Services
Our standard policy is that we don't take payment unless the repair is successful! Taking on that risk is our way of helping the community to consider repair as an option.
See the Repair Services page of this website for all the details.
Resale
The nonprofit is donated a large number of items from the public, many of which are very suitable for repair. These items make excellent skill building projects for our volunteer mechanics. When finished, the items are made available to the public at no cost. Donations to help support the mission are optional, and appreciated.
Environmental Programs
Repair is inherently good in lessening the negative impacts of consumption. And these are two programs provide for additional, direct impact.
Resource and Material Recovery
Items donated to the nonprofit are assessed for repair-worthiness. Items not suitable for repair are carefully dismantled. Reusable parts and materials are recovered and stored for later use in other projects. Non-usable materials are sorted for recycling, or responsible disposal.
This work is conducted by volunteers. Due to the lower degree of technical skills and the inherent learning opportunity to see how things work and how they are assembled, it's a great skill building opportunity for beginner mechanics.
Waste Diversion
This is similar to resource and material recovery but at greater scale. This is direct diversion of the waste stream from waste haulers. If labor and space resources are sufficient, methods and standards developed at our shop can be deployed at the community scale.