It should only take 10 minutes, and will make a huge difference in the network’s ability to meet community needs and understand the impacts of our work.
To say thank you, they’ll enter you to win a £50 voucher to socialsupermarket.org! They’re giving three away.
More about the survey
We’re part of WISH – a county-wide partnership run for and by local communities, supported by The National Lottery Community Fund. We’re one of a few core partners helping create change through connecting communities to nature and to each other.
To respond to what people in the community want, the WISH team would like to hear more about who you are, and what you think and do around the environment, shopping and waste. Your responses will help them paint a picture of our local community and know how to best focus our partnership efforts. They are repeating this survey over time to help us assess the impact we are all having through WISH. If you have filled this survey in before, we would appreciate you doing it again.
Ben joined more than 100 repair groups from across the UK last week for the 3rd Parliamentary Repair Café, organised by the Restart Project and BackMarket.
The day aimed to raise awareness of the Repair and Reuse Declaration, policy objectives to help us all keep our stuff working and in use longer. We were thrilled to see more than 91 MPs and 11 staffers on the day, with more than 140 MPs now signed up to the declaration.
Growing Political Support
It was a great opportunity to catch up with the teams from Bicester Green and Hook Norton repair cafés and put faces to names from many further afield! Ben was also pleased to check in with local MP Anneliese Dodds, who offered some great tips and new connections. And it’s good to see MP Layla Moran on the list of signatories as well.
Photos from Mark A Phillips under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
What comes next?
The Restart Project have put together a blog with more detail on the day and ongoing work happening at national level, linking up community action with the government’s imminent refresh of the Circular Economy Strategy. They pose some great challenges and suggestions for this work, including:
reducing cost of repair
catching up with repair legislation in Europe
stopping working equipment being destroyed and recycled
boosting repair skills
We’ve felt the growing energy for repair in our community here in Oxford, with more and more repair cafés and projects opening locally. It’s great to see so much happening nationally too. Let’s keep moving!
Have you heard of the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre? Find out more about their free lending library dedicated to biological recording, and their upcoming “Noticing Nature” events, a great opportunity to connect with our local nature.
Explore this spring with free equipment and reference guides
TVERC’s lending library collection includes survey equipment, field guides, books, and maps. Whether you’re a seasoned recorder or just starting out, their resources are here to help you explore and document local biodiversity, including:
Guidebooks and keys on numerous British species groups
Books
Field equipment such as beating trays and nets
Bat detectors
Moth trap
Click through to explore the full listing and see how to reserve equimpent:
If you’re keen to borrow some equipment, at this time of year, the TVERC Biodiversity Officer suggests you might like to check out Fritillaries at Iffley Meadows (or join their noticing nature event here on 27th April), Bluebells and other spring flowers in woodland. Orange-tip Butterflies and other spring emerging insects (e.g. bumblebees, bee-flies). Spring migrant birds – Swallow, singing Blackcap, Chiffchaff and the building dawn chorus. Watch out for Swifts towards the end of April/beginning of May.
Join a “noticing nature” event to learn together
After a successful first year, TVERC are planning another series of Noticing Nature events through the summer. Click through to find out when they’re near you!
We’re pleased to share our latest annual report, covering the year to June 2025.
We’re delighted with the growth in our Library of Things and work expanding reuse and skills. This year, the team have also put together some wonderful case studies which bring everything to life. Massive thank you to everyone who’s contributed to another exciting year for SHARE Oxford.
We are excited to be partnering with a new community platform that is being built and piloted here in Oxfordshire this year!
Redirect is a hyper-local platform and a community- and sustainability-first alternative to traditional social media. It is designed to help people redirect time, attention, and money away from the digital distractions of social media and online shopping and towards meaningful, local sustainability initiatives. Instead of impulse purchases and endless scrolling, the platform helps users discover community projects, events, and organisations active near them – and rewards engagement with real-world impact.
Users can follow local organisations, attend events, support projects they care about, and connect with like-minded people in their area. Future features will allow users to track their individual impact and earn local experiences & rewards. For organisations like us, Redirect makes it easier to reach new and existing supporters, increase engagement, and build more resilient networks.
The vision is simple but powerful: stronger, climate-resilient communities, reduced consumption, and more funding and participation flowing into local sustainability efforts.
The platform is free to use. It already has 500+ Oxford-based events posted and is onboarding new users every day!
Redirect’s Founder, Hannah Sassi, received her Master’s in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment from the University of Oxford and is based here as a researcher. The idea for Redirect came from her belief in the importance of locally-led climate action and a desire to discover and highlight the amazing sustainability initiatives of community groups in places like Oxford.
Hannah is currently looking for new users, gathering feedback, and building partnerships while she runs the Oxford pilot. If you’re interested in supporting, partnering, or simply following the journey, Hannah would love to hear from you.
Happy New Year! We hope you saw out 2025 in style.
This week, in between rubbing my eyes and double-taking at the news on my phone, I was inspired by this newsletter from environmental action charity Hubbub. They captured well how much great stuff is going on in the world of climate and nature, even if it can get lost in confusing times. They describe well how we care about this, we are getting on with change, and we’re finding new ways to have a great time. It’s worth a read.
From our viewpoint as a community organisation here in Oxfordshire, this feels so true. We’re a small team and learning loads as we go. We’re always motivated to help people connect with projects in this space that excite and inspire them. With this in mind, here are a few bits and bobs we’ve been either involved in or inspired by in the last few months, and can’t wait to see go further in 2026.
From big beasts…
The University’s recently-opened Schwartzman Centre for the Humanities is potentially the largest building in the country to achieve Passivehaus. It’s been designed with a strong push for community connection as well as academic excellence and aims to be an open space for us all. I’m starting by trying out their café with our Chair of Trustees this week!
There’s exciting progress on community connection at the Engineering Department; Nikita Hari, who among her many roles, leads their work on “Engineering in Practice”, has run their first break-down sessions with students. In the coming months, we hope to team up with repair café volunteers. This could build community and help students take this thinking into careers designing and building the products of the future.
It was great to get to London in December to meet many inspiring people at the Green Alliance’s launch of this video series of circular economy success stories. A reminder of how much is going on around the country and beyond, and how we can get involved.
…to local heroes…
The huge new Humanities building reminded me, on a different scale, what a fantastic job Cherwell Collective have done with their WISH store refurb in Kidlington. It was a really welcoming, smart place for our recent WISH network meeting. It’s worth popping in and asking to check out the solar panels, heat pumps, re-homed furnishings and more that make a sustainable home for this group’s future.
Thinking of setting up for the future, it’s exciting to see the Getting Oxfordshire Online teams at SOFEA and Aspire moving to more self-funded model, selling a portion of donated devices to fund their work. This increases the service’s resilience to shifting funder priorities and offers a great new way to support them. If you are in the market for a computer or two, John and the team will help you get a great device and support your community in the process.
A new area for us to learn, our volunteer Molly helped us understand better how reuse fits into our mission and who we could collaborate with. As a first step, we’ve been delighted to connect up a local business with reuse charity KFR. Their team in Swindon have collected the first van-load of unwanted white goods from sites in Oxford to be refurbished, safety-certified and distributed.
…this is an amazing community
There was amazing energy in the room as we shared a meal at Makespace’s end of year party, reflecting all the progress they’ve made in building such a vibrant community. They’ve re-opened 31 buildings which host 276 organisations so far. It’s all underpinned by their powerful (re)founding work to stay focused on their mission to improve spatial justice.
The informal network of UK Libraries of Things has taken a great step forward this year. The re-organised WhatsApp community now includes many more groups and helps people like us discuss all the important things in life like insurance and Mailchimp subscriber limits. It’s also a great place to celebrate progress like Leamington Spa’s new LoT opening, and SHARE Skipton winning a North Yorkshire Community Impact Award.
Our Library of Things customers always inspire with the ideas they are trying out too. We meet people new to the city who are pleased that they don’t need to buy stuff. Others hire thermal cameras to find “quick fixes” to save energy. Some hire kit like beds for family visits, tackle those DIY fixes they’ve been meaning to for ages or create beautiful crafts. Your good nature and honesty also really helps us learn where we need to keep improving for our bit to work well (including apologies to those guests who wound up sleeping on a slowly deflating air bed this Christmas…)
With so many more great things going on than we’ve mentioned here, we hope you start 2026 energised to take next steps on the things you care about. If we can help in any way, please feel free to get in touch. Maybe we could link you up with Community Action Groups in your area, or you could pop in to chat through an idea with our staff and volunteers, feed back where you want to challenge us, share what’s inspiring you, or anything else.
And, of course, we’d love to help you start your year with some repairing, sharing or reusing at these upcoming sessions:
Monday 12th January – Tech Rescue to keep your IT working well, or help pass on your old gear if Santa brought a new laptop.
Sunday 18th January – Repair Café to fix electrical and mechanical things, bikes, clothes and this month even leather books.
Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays – the Library of Things is open as usual for early spring cleans, January birthdays, DIY projects and all your other brilliant ideas.
When you open your wardrobe, what do you see? For many of us it’s a mix of well-loved favourites, a few forgotten impulse buys, and pieces that could use a little care. Sustainable fashion invites us to look at that collection differently. Instead of asking what’s missing, we can ask what more can I do with what I already have?
This year, Sustainable Fashion Week is happening across the UK, bringing communities together to explore creativity, sustainability, and mindful wardrobes. Oxfordshire joins the movement with events and exhibitions showing that sustainable fashion can be accessible, creative, and fun for everyone.
SFW: a National Movement for Change
Sustainable Fashion Week (SFW) is showing that changing the fashion industry starts at the community level. Now, in its fifth year and running from September 27th to October 5th, SFW brings together makers, designers, brands and local groups in a celebration of creativity, climate action, and collective effort. It’s not a traditional fashion week focused on runways and retail, it’s a community-led movement built around the belief that people and nature should come before profit.
Each year, the programme centres on a new theme. This year it’s “Fashion, Reclaimed”, an invitation to reclaim our style, our wardrobes and our relationship with fashion itself. Events across the UK, from sewing workshops and visible mending circles to clothes swaps and bold catwalk shows, explore how we can rethink fashion in ways that reduce waste and reconnect us to the clothes we wear.
This national effort is made up of dozens of local “hubs”, clusters of activity that anchor the movement in different communities. Here in Oxfordshire, Cherwell Collective runs our local hub, connecting the county’s creativity and community spirit to the bigger national picture.
The 2024 sustainable fashion show at Blenheim
This week, together with CAG Oxfordshire, they hosted a clothes swap at Tap Social, with people swapping 248 items (66kg) and another 61kg donated to local charity the Gatehouse.
A highlight of the week’s programme was Wednesday’s Ripples of Change Sustainable Fashion Show at Blenheim Palace, where designers transform upcycled and unconventional materials into striking new looks. Oxford United football players Naomi Bedeau & Lucy Trinder even modelled unique designs designed from replica kits.
Learn about the Carbon Cost of Fashion
There’s still time to check out Cherwell Collective’s Carbon Cost of Fashion Exhibition, which is at Oxford Town Hall until 18th October (Monday to Saturday) before it returns to their WISH shop in Kidlington.
Cherwell Collective’s Carbon Cost of Fashion exhibition
It’s a one-of-a-kind interactive exhibition chronicling the impact of our fashion choices and sharing inspiring ideas for change, helping us reduce the UK fashion industry’s carbon footprint.
Feeling inspired?
If SFW 2025 has left you inspired, there are lots of ways to enjoy Sustainable fashion and local groups to get involved with!
Second-Hand, First Choice!
Our Secondhand September blog has tips and hidden gems for stylish, sustainable shopping. Shopping second-hand isn’t about settling for less; it’s about discovering more. Each piece comes with its own history, and finding it feels like uncovering a secret treasure.
Exploring these shops is not only about style. It’s also a way to support local charities, independent businesses, and community initiatives. Each purchase helps to fund valuable work while giving clothes another chance to shine. It’s shopping with stories attached.
Repair with Care: Learning the Joy of Mending
A missing button or small tear doesn’t need to spell the end of a garment. In fact, repair can be surprisingly rewarding. It’s not just about fixing; it’s about deepening your connection with your clothes and gaining the satisfaction of keeping something useful and loved for longer.
Our sewing team enjoyed making a feature of this repair
Oxford has plenty of opportunities to discover the art of repair. Repair cafés across the county add a friendly, social dimension too. They’re places where people gather not just to fix, but to share skills, swap tips, and cheer each other on. A mended jumper becomes more than clothing, it becomes a story of care and community.
And our next one is 19th October which you can book here.
Upcycling: Giving Clothes a Second Life
There’s something magical about looking at an old garment and imagining what else it could become. A shirt doesn’t have to stay a shirt forever, and a pair of jeans can carry many more stories than their first chapter. Reuse and upcycling invite us to see clothes not as fixed, but as materials for creativity. It’s about finding joy in transformation — whether that means a small tweak to refresh a favourite piece, or a bold redesign that turns scraps into something completely new.
Over at Orinoco, with their motto of “play, create, decorate” you’ll find sewing machines, fabrics, and all sorts of quirky offcuts and embellishments to experiment with. And if you don’t own a sewing machine, SHARE Oxford’s Library of Things lets you hire one whenever you need (see the catalogue here).
And the best part? Upcycling isn’t about perfection. It’s about experimentation, play, and putting your personal stamp on your clothes. Whether you patch a pair of trousers, add a statement trim to a jacket, or turn offcuts into something entirely new, you’re giving garments a second life. and creating pieces that truly belong to you.
Small Steps, Big Change
Repairing, reusing, and rethinking fashion doesn’t require a complete lifestyle overhaul. It can start with a single action: sewing on a button, swapping a jumper, or visiting a second-hand shop with a friend.
If you’ve been inspired by Sustainable Fashion Week, our volunteers are always keen to help you take your next steps, whether helping with a repair or upcyling project or recommending a group near you to get involved with. You can always get in touch at hello@shareoxford.org
The clock is ticking… On 14 October 2025, Microsoft will officially end support for Windows 10. That means no more security updates, leaving your computer increasingly vulnerable to bugs, viruses, and other security risks.
If you’ve been following SHARE Oxford, you’ll know that our Tech Rescue team are here to help you keep safe and save your old PC from the bin!
As we approach the deadline, there’s some good news if you’re not ready to move yet, and a reminder of how we can help.
Another year, for free
If you’re still running Windows 10, Microsoft are now offering a free additional year of updates if you enrol in the “Extended Support Updates” programme. You’ll need a (free) Microsoft account and to be backing up your computer to OneDrive. You might need to pay for enough OneDrive space but, in short, if you don’t have too many files or you already pay for Microsoft Office, you should be eligible.
Writing that blog taught us how much there is to consider! If you’re daunted, our Tech Rescue volunteers can help you explore your options or guide you through the process.
If you decide it’s time for a new machine, don’t let your old one gather dust. You can give it a second life through Getting Oxfordshire Online, a fantastic local initiative that securely wipes and refurbishes computers for people in need.
We can even help you transfer your data and prepare the device for donation. Book a session with our Tech Rescue team and we’ll guide you through every step.
Who doesn’t love shopping for clothes? The thrill of finding something new is exciting. But what if fashion could be fun, affordable, and kinder to the planet too? This September, a UK-wide campaign is challenging us all.
Second Hand September, initiated by OXFAM in 2019, encourages people to buy pre-loved clothing for the month of September and to raise awareness of the fast fashion industry’s environmental impact. Let’s join thousands across the UK in saying no to new, and yes to a more rewarding way to refresh your style. By choosing second-hand, you can refresh your wardrobe, save money, and reduce waste, all while supporting local charities and building a more sustainable Oxford.
Why Second-Hand?
The fashion industry is one of the world’s biggest polluters. In 2022, the clothes and textiles we used in the UK produced the equivalent of 32.9 million tonnes of carbon emissions, and used 5 billion cubic metres of water. That’s a huge footprint just to produce what we wear. Even more shocking, over half of all post-consumer textiles ended up as landfill or incineration waste.
But there’s good news, about 30% of used textiles are now being diverted away from landfill through resale, reuse, and recycling. Charities are a significant part of this. Selling approximately 185.5 kilotonnes in store or online, showing just how mainstream pre-loved fashion has become (according to the report from WRAP published on 31 March 2024).
How to have Fun, Affordable, and Rewarding Fashion this September
The Thrill of the Hunt: Discovering Unique Style
Think about shopping as a treasure hunt! Instead of seeing the same fast-fashion items on everyone, you get to find one-of-a-kind pieces that truly reflect your style. How would you feel after discovering a hidden gem in the shops? Oxford is also full of brilliant second-hand stores from charity shops to curated vintage stores to help you mix and match your look. And best of all? Second-hand is often much cheaper than buying new, so your wallet benefits too.
Online marketplaces: Platforms like Vinted, Depop, and eBay UK make it easy to buy (or sell) pre-loved clothing from home.
Unlock Your Creativity: Repair and Restyle
Every piece of clothing often comes with history, from the moment you bought it to the adventures you’ve had in it. A simple tear or missing button should not be a reason to discard them. What if you could learn to fix them? We regularly get lovely feedback from our repair cafe guests who have learned basic sewing skills to patch a hole, sew on a new button or learn how to handle that tricky hem. And if you are ready to take on a creative project, restyling that tired-looking shirt maybe, we have sewing machines for hire in the Library of Things
Here are some of the many Repair Cafés happening this September:
Fashion doesn’t have to be a solo activity. A clothes swap is like shopping with friends, but without the cost. It’s a great way to try new styles and pass on items you no longer wear. You can join the upcoming local swaps below, or even host with your friends and family!
Second Hand September isn’t just about shopping, it’s a chance to look inside your own wardrobe first and rethink fashion altogether.
We’ve all had those moments staring at a closet full of clothes and feeling like we have nothing to wear. Instead of seeing it as a problem, you can turn it into an opportunity. Think about Marie Kondo and her concept of “sparking joy”. Go through your wardrobe, take a moment to hold each item, and then ask yourself: “Does this piece of clothing truly spark joy in me?”
By making this a mindful process, you’re not just decluttering. You are curating a wardrobe that makes you feel great every day. For the items that no longer “spark joy”, you can thank them for their service and let them go with a purpose. You’re not only simply clearing space, you’re also giving someone else the opportunity to fall in love with a piece and give it a second life. You can donate to any of the charity shops in Oxford we’ve listed above.
Let’s Make A Difference in September
At SHARE Oxford, every item hired from our Library of Things means one less item potentially bought unnecessarily. Every repair at our Repair Café is about more than just fixing. It’s about building a community of empowered individuals. We believe that by learning basic repair skills, you can save your favourite clothes from landfill, extend the life of broken things, and feel the satisfaction of a job well done. It’s exciting to see initiatives like Second Hand September growing each year, building the circular economy we do our bit for.
Taking part in Second Hand September can start with just one simple action: donate, repair, rewear, or restyle. Every step you take helps cut waste, reduce emissions, and keep clothes in use for longer. And our small actions add up to big change.
What will your Second Hand September story be? We’d love to hear about it! Share your story with us in the comments, tag us on social media @shareoxford, or send us a photo! Your creativity might just inspire someone else to take the leap as well.
The secret to Summer fun! Save money and reduce waste with SHARE Oxford, borrow what you need from party gear, camping equipment, and more.
The British summer is passing fast, but there’s still time to enjoy a BBQ in the garden, kids’ birthday parties, and outdoor adventures. But there is one nagging question: do you really need to buy all that summer gear?
We get it! The cost of summer fun can add up – buying everything brand new can also feel overwhelming (and expensive). That’s why more and more people in Oxford are choosing to hire from the Library of Things at SHARE Oxford (or another of the growing number of hiring or borrowing options in the county). It is a simple idea but smart for your wallet: hire what you need, when you need it, and return it when you’re done.
Inspired by your Adventures
We love hearing how hiring from our Library of Things helps create unforgettable summer memories. Take Katherine and her family on their camping trip to the Lake District: they borrowed a bike rack, a camping stove with gas canisters, and sleeping mats. “I honestly felt stunned, then increasingly excited at the different types of gear on offer from the Library of Things. We had the best weekend exploring nature, all possible thanks to SHARE Oxford!”, said Katherine.
Philippa used our tablecloths for a family birthday, then came back for hotplates and saucepans to host a winter gathering. “Such a brilliant, practical service!” – Philippa said.
These stories show the heart of what we do: helping you save money, reduce clutter, and help Oxford become a bit more sustainable.
Our Top Summer Hired Items
These are the most hired items from our Library of Things in the past two months. Maybe these could inspire you to plan your next summer activities!
Gazebo: Essential for a UK garden party – rain or shine. Our gazebos helped with Julia’s party for her mum’s birthday.
Bunting: Add some unique handmade colour to your party.
From birthday parties to camping holidays, or just enjoying the last of the summer sun, we’ve got you covered with our Library of Things! We have all sorts of categories to hire that you might not imagine, from a ukulele, electric hand mixer, to a popcorn maker!
Reserve Online: Book the dates and items you need.
Collect or Arrange Delivery: Pop into our friendly base at Makespace Oxford, 1 Aristotle Lane, Oxford OX2 6TP, or we can deliver it to you with Velocity Cycle Couriers.
Choose to borrow, not buy, and enjoy a greener and smarter choice for your wallet and our planet with SHARE Oxford. And do get in touch – we always love hearing your stories of summer adventures with the kit you hired from us!
