Local charity celebrates receiving National Lottery funding

Share (Portsmouth) was founded in 2022 by Clare Seek, who after running Repair Café Portsmouth as a monthly pop-up event for 4 years, realised that people wanted more opportunities to repair broken things and were interested in other practical solutions to address the climate crisis and save money.

With the generous donation of a shop unit, the charity opened the Library of Things and Repair Café in Cascades Shopping Centre in May 2023. The Repair Café is where people bring their broken items, sit with a skilled volunteer, and work together to try and find ways to fix items (household electricals, toys, clothes, jewellery and more). Portsmouth Library of Things is where people become a member and borrow infrequently used items (garden, DIY & kitchen tools, items for events, holidays and more).

In the 17 months since opening their doors, members have borrowed over 1000 items, saving over £80k and the team has helped visitors repair over 1,100 items, preventing 2,263 kg of waste, and across both projects, saved over 66,000 kg of CO2.

The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will see the projects expand to help more residents.

At the same time, the charity will be able to further develop their workshops that help adults learn DIY skills and develop partnerships with other local groups and organisations looking to share equipment and reduce waste.

Clare Seek, founder of Share (Portsmouth) says: “We are delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to help more people save money and carbon through repairing and sharing. We have had such an amazing response since opening in the Cascades Shopping Centre, and it’s a joy to help people repair household electricals as well as treasured items. And we never get bored of hearing why people are borrowing items from the Library, whether that’s to improve their home, run a community event or party, or look after visiting grandkids. Everyone we talk to has an underlying worry about the state of our planet and being able to do something practical and good for our finances, whether that’s fixing rather than ditching or borrowing rather than buying, is a simple win for everyone.”

Diane Morley, member of Portsmouth Library of Things says: “I love the whole ethos, repair and borrow! So far I've borrowed: a drill, power washer, soil sieve, ladder and carpet cleaner! They've helped me repair my power washer and garden strimmer, saved me so much money. And the volunteers are just gorgeous, helpful and friendly!”

David Jackson, volunteer for Repair Café Portsmouth says: “I love volunteering for several reasons. Helping co-repairers bring something back to life rather than binning it is a good use of my time and is great for the environment. I love the interesting conversations with the wide variety of people, volunteers and customers, and as a retired man it is a useful way of staying active. This funding is brilliant news!”

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year (2023/24) The National Lottery Community Fund awarded over half a billion pounds (£686.3 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, supporting over 13,700 projects to turn their great ideas into reality.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk