Create a city repair website
Although there are clear opportunities in actions to centralise, collaborate and exchange between stakeholders active in the repair industry, the 4 'Sharepair cities' have developed a local communication strategy to highlight the topic of repair in their own city. Meet the city repair platforms.
Ready to build your own city repair platform?
Local communication campaigns
In the past months, the cities of Leuven, Apeldoorn, Louvain-la-Neuve and Roeselare have been working on a communication strategy to boost the visibility of repair in their cities.
The result? A shared online strategy and website format, that can easily be customised to each city's own context, but is managed and maintained collectively.
Discover
4 city repair platforms showcasing local repair initiatives on a map, presenting a repair events calendar and a shout out to local repair heroes of the city.
A city's one-stop-shop for repair
The city repair platforms have the objective to bring together all things repair happening in a city. To be a city's one-stop-shop for repair, where citizens can be inspired and guided towards local initiatives and repair players, and where local repair communities can take the stage.
This strategic objective results in some very specific functionalities:
Local repair spots
Repair Maps is a database that collects repair actors all around Europe in order to present to citizens an integrated map of repair places in their area. In the city platforms, the repair map is integrated in a way that there is a zoom on the local city.
This functionality goes hand in hand with the action of promoting local repair initiatives: a first 'mapping' of all repair actors in the city helps feeding the local map.
City repair agenda
The city repair platforms contain an events section in which all local repair events can be collected and presented into a city repair calendar.
Repair heroes & their stories
The platform gives a voice to local repair heroes.
Who are we referring to? Really anyone who is contributing to the local repair community: from Repair Café experts and professional repairers to engineering students who like to open up devices or second hand shop owners or even activist-citizens. All kinds of profiles make up a city's repair network.
By sharing these people's stories to citizens, we make a city's repair community tangible and engaging.
Anyone can register as a repair hero on the city platforms, and start sharing their stories and content.
Or — even better: citizens can also nominate the local repair heroes they know.
Registrations of local repairs done
The main message to citizens is that in order to reach a city goal of waste avoidance and CO2 reduction, citizens have to work together.
The local repair community exists, and the options to choose for repair are very diverse. The city platform is a handy tool to introduce local citizens into the various options. And fun way to ask for citizen participation: they are asked to help grow the city numbers!
How? By registering a repair each time they have one done through a local professional repair shop, or each time they venture into a DIY repair.
(Repairs registered at local Repair Cafés using Repair Connects are logged automatically).
Side note: shared technical basis
The city repair platforms are all part of one website developed by Leuven-based agency and Sharepair project partner Statik.
Statik developed a multisite in Craft CMS, meaning that the framework for the city repair platform is shared amongst all participating cities, but each city can manage and present its own city website. The shared technical setup offers many advantages:
- the basic common framework is already developed, so new cities can join at a minimal cost and effort
- the basic framework includes different ways for each city to customise their platform (city visual, campaign name, city partners, own content & user management...)
- further growth, technical maintenance, updates & support is done for all participating cities
Is your city a repair city?
Are you convinced of our city strategy and willing to go full-on for repair in your city? Do you work for your city (e.g. in communications, sustainability departments) are you a key player in your city's repair community? Read on for the practical steps to take.
Liene Blancke, Project facilitator Circular Economy from the city of Leuven is happy to share her insights and to help you get started with the city repair platforms. Get in touch through the contact form below.