Over a hundred students gather for sustainability skills event from our award-winning Living Lab

Students from across the University have gathered to learn, stitch, and connect at a special Repair Fair from York St John University's Living Lab. Fresh from winning a second national award for their sustainability work, the Living Lab team are focusing on a 2 year 'Climate Resilience' project.

Established in 2021 within our Institute for Social Justice, the Living Lab brings together students and staff to investigate real-life, local, ecological justice issues and look for solutions at grassroots level.

Previous projects include Learning at the junction focusing on air pollution and Feeding the campus which looked at food justice and sustainability. The projects have both earned HE sector recognition, with back-to-back wins at the coveted Green Gown awards.

The new Living Lab theme for 2024-2026 is Resilience in a changing climate, with students from across the University invited to take part and join the Living Lab community. The Lab's work has highlighted that students are keen to develop 'practical skills for climate resilience, such as mending, making, and growing food'.

The Repair Fair was launched with this in mind and featured sewing skills sessions with Tadcrafters community group.

More than 100 students took part, learning to give clothes a new lease of life with sewing basics like stitching on buttons and hemming. Volunteers from the Groves Repair 'n Share Cafe were also on hand at a repair table to mend clothes, bags and beloved textiles items. 30 sewing kits were handed out and more than 40 items were repaired.

York St John's Sustainability team also offered sessions on sustainable travel with iTravel York, presentations from Biffa about waste reduction at York St John and free bike servicing from Bike Doctor.

Ellie Steel, Living Lab intern for community skills said: "The Repair Fair was just fantastic. It was a chance for students, staff, and volunteers from the community in and around York to come together to learn from each other and talk candidly about issues we face with the clothing industry and our consumer habits.

"I spoke with several students who shared how pleased they were to have found a group of 'accepting and welcoming people' who could teach sewing skills or repair loved items with kindness and expertise."

Forensic Psychology student Bailee Wray said they got a lot out of the event: "When I heard about the repair fair, I was really excited to get involved as I am a crafter and I have just started learning how to sew. When I was there, I met Su from Tadcrafters who was really lovely and showed me how to make a sewing kit from felt.

"Everyone at the event was so welcoming and I had a really great time meeting likeminded people and learning a new skill."

Dr Vicki Pugh, Project Manager and Researcher for the Institute for Social Justice and Living Lab co-lead, said: "Over the next two years, 'Living Lab: Resilience in a Changing Climate' will be holding more events where community skills flourish.

"The success of our first Repair Fair is a great indication that people are open and enthusiastic about opportunities to share and learn practical skills that benefit our planet. Also, events such as our January Potluck will bring York St John and wider community together to share their climate resilience goals, ideas and wins. Please keep an eye on our news channels for all the exciting things to come!"

Climate resilience is being explored in teaching spaces too, with a wide variety of subject areas working on live briefs on four scales: Campus, City, Region, and Global. These four strands were developed in consultation with academics across the York St John community with each brief building on existing research threads at the University.

Dr Catherine Heinemeyer, "This new Living Lab is a real democratic collaboration between students and staff, and it needs to be.

"Climate resilience is a really challenging topic - but one that's absolutely essential for universities to get to grips with. What does it mean to prepare students for lives and careers in a time of climate change? How can they bring all their skills to the task of building more resilient communities?"

Another initiative for the latest Living Lab is creating and delivering the Friendly Living Fund. This is a pot of money open to applications from York St John students with a climate-conscious initiative they would like to implement.

"We know tight finances can prevent students from contributing to climate resilience by volunteering, learning new skills, insulating their homes or changing their diet or travel habits." continued Dr Heinemeyer.

"The aim of this fund is to go towards removing some of those barriers and we're excited to see what our students bring forward."

Applications for the Friendly Living Fund will open in 2025, further details on the Living Lab.

Read more about the Repair Fair on the Institute for Social Justice blog.

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