Since 2021, Great Big Green Week has given communities across the UK the opportunity to celebrate and join in with activities that help reduce waste, protect nature, and tackle climate change. This year, the focus is on swapping – swapping stuff like clothes and books, but also plants and seeds, and even skills, helping people save money, extending the life of the things we use, reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, and bringing communities together.
“Let’s swap together for good”
Swapping is at the heart of what we do at SHARE Oxford: not only with our library of things to give people the opportunity to borrow items rather than buy them, but also repair cafes, where our lovely volunteers bring broken things back to life. For this year’s Great Big Green Week we want to focus on sharing skills – helping people develop new skills and the confidence to use them to fix their own stuff, and maybe even find a new hobby!
Learn sustainable skills this Great Big Green Week
If you’re keen to learn something new, here are some of the skills-focused events taking place in and around Oxford during the week:
Makespace Oxford Living Fibre weaving – Saturday 7 June, 10am – 12pm – part of a series with Fred Branson learning how to forage natural fibres, work them into cords and weave beautiful natural creations.
Tech Rescue – Monday 9th June, 11am-3pm – our volunteers can help you keep your old IT working smoothly, help you manage the move on from Windows 10 or prepare to pass on your unwanted devices to the community.
Woodwork tool sharpening with Lu from Oxford Furniture Makers – Thursday 12th June 11am-12:30pm – learn how to keep your tools in perfect condition and explore traditional woodworking techniques with Lu from Oxford Furniture Makers – bookings opening 19 May
Bike repair basics with Piotr from EOF Hackspace – Saturday 14th June, 11am – 2pm – Piotr will take you through the basics of servicing your bike and managing simple repairs so you have the confidence to keep it in great condition.
Broken spoke bike repair workshops – there are all sorts of options for learning bike repair with Broken spoke including slots during the week, or it’s a good option if you can’t make our session this week!
Electrical repair basics at our repair café – Sunday 15th June, 2-5pm – alongside our usual “bring your stuff to fix” offering, our electrical repair team will be demonstrating some of the key steps for successful electrical repairs – eg opening things up carefully so they can go back together, checking for electrical continuity and the key basics of electrical safety. Check for the “electrical repair demo” slots at 2pm in our booking form.!
And the SHARE Oxford team is out and about
Our team will also be pleased to see you and talk about all things sharing and repairing at these events:
Makespace Oxford plant swap – Saturday 7 June, 11am – 2pm – bring along your plants and seeds that you want to swap with other growers. Also swap stories and knowledge of growing the plants you love.
THRIVE Oxford with Oxford Climate Collective – Saturday 7th June 10am – 4pm – a celebration of sustainable community showcasing local initiatives around the themes of food, travel, energy, nature and reducing waste.
Oxford City Farm’s Great Big Green Week Celebration – Saturday 14th June 10am – 2pm – we’ll be with our friends from the WISH network sharing all sorts of activities and updates from across the network as we work to build a circular economy for Oxfordshire.
So much going on across the county!
You’ll find lots going on across Oxfordshire on the Great Big Green Week website and CAG Oxfordshire’s pages. Maybe it’ll inspire you to host something yourself. If you’d like us to help you put something on or spread the word, do get in touch.
