A project created to save electrical and other household items from going to landfill is also tackling digital poverty in the Chorley area and has received a £500 donation.
Chorley Repair Café is a new project developed by Chorley United Reformed Church to fix the community’s broken items - everything from electrical appliances to furniture and clothing - and prevent them from being thrown away.
As part of this, and in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the project set up a scheme to address the lack of digital devices available to children and young people in the area whose learning was affected by school closures.
The Repair Café set about donating repaired laptops and tablets to vulnerable families.
Our funding went towards purchasing the parts needed to get donated laptops up and running.
Andy Littlejohns, community minister at Chorley United Reformed Church, said: “As well as teaching the community how to repair their own IT equipment through the IT café, we have also been accepting surplus laptops and tablets to give to children who desperately need them once they’ve been fixed.
“Redrow’s donation came just at the right time as we needed funding to buy parts to get devices back up and running.”
In total, the group has refurbished over 80 laptops that were divided between children in Chorley. Our donation paid for around 25 of these and was one of four £500 community grants donated to local community groups linked to our Willows Green development in Clayton-le-Woods.
Sian Pitt, sales director at the Buckshaw Village-based Lancashire division, said: “All the groups we have helped through this grant scheme have a really positive impact on their local community. The IT Café’s project responded to a new problem that was faced by many families during the Covid pandemic and will have helped children to stay up to date with schoolwork when they couldn’t physically go into classes. I’m really pleased we were able to help with this.
“As a company Redrow’s key values include building responsibly and creating thriving communities. We want to ensure we support neighbourhood projects that have positive impacts now and in the future.”
For more details about our homes at Willows Green, see www.redrow.co.uk/willowsgreen, or call 01772 340601.
