Time After Time Fund

Youth-led charity Youth & Community Connexions works with young people in North London to co-design and develop activities and workshops across a range of topics. Their campaign helped their local community to pass-on and recycle old electronic devices, repair and redistribute them, and showing people the value in prolonging the life of electricals. The project focused particularly on young people, empowering them to tackle e-waste through various hands on activities.

A key success of this project came from engaging local businesses, who set-up drop-off points to make donating electricals convenient. These items were then used in workshops, showing the public how to dismantle items safely, salvage valuable parts, and repair electronic devices. Over 327 items were donated, fixed, and passed on with an additional 607 items recycled. Beyond an environmental issue, the project highlighted how projects like this can help families across the UK with the cost-of-living crisis, as many items required quick fixes such as a new fuse, crucial savings for families who may already be struggling to get by. As a result of the project, Youth and Community Connexions will continue to work with local businesses, schools and colleges to provide future e-waste repair sessions and upskill more young people in essential repair skills.

Sustainable Hive CIC’s Re-Fuse repair workshops provided young people in Bristol with a hands-on experience to learn about e-waste and its solutions. The sessions highlighted the importance of passing-on and repairing unused electrical items, sparking city-wide repair activities with young people. Their workshop space, built from reclaimed materials, invited school groups to dismantle broken electricals and salvage recyclable parts. Over 1,859 students accessed the workshop and handled 486 items, over 177 were repaired and donated and 309 were stripped for parts. Teachers praised the workshops as “the most engaged that we have ever seen our children”. 

These workshops showed, rather than told, students about the valuable materials found within electricals – demystifying the hidden components within electrical items and equipped participants with practical repair skills and new perspectives on items they use daily. They included tasks such as phone dismantling, PAT testing, wire stripping, and laptop repairs, making the experience highly practical.

Share Portsmouth’s Time After Time project reflected the charity's mission to create a growing culture of repairing and sharing with a focus on e-waste. By mapping out locations across Portsmouth where residents could repair, sell, donate or recycle unwanted electrical items, the map made it easier for residents to act.

Share Portsmouth developed the city’s first e-waste amnesty week. This involved hosting seven events across the city that tackled the issue of e-waste by understanding residents' perspective on e-waste. Local charity shops collaborated to accept working unwanted electrical items, while a local business managed the recycling of end-of-life items. The event engaged approximately 5,320 people and gathered valuable insights into local recycling behaviour, such as the most common reason for holding onto items: “Never getting around to doing something with it.” 

The project resulted in 440kg of electricals being repaired or reused. The outcomes have equipped Share Portsmouth with the knowledge to develop a toolkit for others interested in organising e-waste amnesty events nationwide. The e-waste map will continue to be used and promoted in Portsmouth, with data being contributed to Material Focus for wider application.

Foothold Cymru launched The Bright Sparks initiative to reduce e-waste in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire. The project focused on educating and training four cohorts of young people through pop-up events and e-waste workshops, teaching them how to repair and recycle small electrical items. The project went beyond youth engagement and raised awareness in the local community to over 100 local residents. As a result,a total of 493kg of e-waste was saved from going to landfill and 70kg of electronics were redistributed locally to address digital exclusion and continue upskilling young people. 

26 young people volunteered for a role of an e-waste ambassadors and attended 15 workshops to improve their skill sets and knowledge around repair and reuse of electronic items. All those involved felt that the project had increased their employability skills and gave them the confidence to talk about the importance of the issue with their wider community.

Library of Things, a London based social enterprise, aims to making renting products accessible and more convenient than buying new.  Their project saw them join forces with ReLondon and OWL Electrical to launch a platform that  combines a digital forum, membership, and in-person events to create hyperlocal movements to encourage reuse and repair. 

To develop the platform, Library of Things took on a user-research and design-led approach, incorporating focus groups and user-testing throughout the process. Within six weeks of the pilot launch, 2,300 members had already engaged with a circular guide to learn about an additional action they can take to reduce e-waste. 

Library of Things are continuing to develop the platform and hope to scale their operations throughout London and beyond to create a lasting impact on e-waste. Through this project they have formed partnerships with organisations such as Gumtree, Olio, Backmarket and The Restart Project which will allow them to reach millions of new users and continue their impact.

The Restart Project ran the Student Repair Revolution to engage students across the UK to repair of electric items in their universities. The project supported the growth and establishment of various repair initiatives at universities, working closely with each institution to design a format tailored to their specific needs. Every university has different needs and capacity to set-up this kind of initiative. 

Through the student repair revolution there have been monthly or termly repair initiatives held at: University of Strathclyde, University of St Andrews, University of the West of England, Cardiff University, UEL, University of Portsmouth, University of Bangor, University of Bath and University of Bath Spa, University of the Arts London and University of Leeds. Alongside bespoke support, the project offered educational resources and developed a channel on their platform, Restarters, which featured webinars and peer-to-peer support. 

The project raised awareness about e-waste through tech amnesties and redistributed working electronic devices to students in need. Feedback from students showed that they had an increased awareness of the importance of passing on working electricals and repair, and had more confidence in their ability to repair items. The Restart Project plan to continue engagement with more universities to keep the Student Repair Revolution growing.

Climate action charity Possible built on their Fixing Factory model by engaging a new generate of fixers through hands-on learning and a delivery of training programs which targeted items often neglected in the space of repair – from hair dryer to air fryer. 

They delivered a series of different courses which looked at laptop repair and maintenance, electronics and electricals training sessions, and stand-alone workshops such as a ‘beginners guide to soldering’.  Participants from the training reported improved mental health and employability prospects. Through Camden Fixing Factory, 307 items were rescued from recycling – they were logged, tested and rehomed to charities. 

The benefit of the training could be seen by the eight individuals placed into employment, apprenticeships, or further training, demonstrating the social benefits that come from projects like this. Training materials from the workshops will be used for future cohorts and shared with other repair groups to further impact.

Treverbyn Community Trust made repairs accessible for community members who might have limited access to such services. They partnered with repair experts St Austell Repair Café and converted an existing community asset, The Really Lovely Van, into a Mobile Repair Café that offered to repair and/or redistribute electronic items that might otherwise go to waste. Over 1,300 people took part, learning new skills and repairing 176 items. The project also sparked the creation of new repair cafés across the region, proving the power of taking repair on the road.

The Warren Youth Project, based in Hull, ran Tekatak, a two-year programme giving young people the skills to repair, upgrade and reuse laptops, tackling e-waste while bridging the digital divide.

Donated devices formed the backbone of practical workshops where participants learned to upgrade hardware, install operating systems, and customise devices to their needs. Thirty-two young people completed the programme and achieved the BCS Essential Digital Skills for Work qualification at Entry Level 3 or Level 1.

In total, 143 young people attended upgrade workshops, refurbishing 48 laptops which were donated to participants. Others were repaired using salvaged parts, helping divert over 870kg of e-waste from landfill.

Groundwork East's Single Use Sucks campaign tackled the growing issue of disposable vapes and their role in e-waste, with a focus on university students across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Essex. The charity worked with a creative agency to produce a striking campaign identity and toolkit, equipping universities with resources to raise awareness of vape recycling and promote local e-waste repair and reuse services.

The campaign reached students through fresher’s fairs, environmental events, on-campus stands, and targeted social media. In total, 2,563 people were engaged in person and over 14,000 reached through online content and media coverage, including features on BBC News and Heart Radio. While safety and licensing issues meant collecting vapes on campus was not possible, the team adapted by promoting existing recycling options and encouraging universities to strengthen their own e-waste schemes. Leaflets and digital guides were distributed widely, signposting students to local facilities.

The Time After Time Fund helped Coventry City Council expand #CovConnects, its pioneering digital recycling scheme. The scheme, which is part of the Council’s Digital Inclusion programme, aims to give community organisations, the local council and NHS services digital devices as part of wider digital inclusion initiatives.  Most of the devices are recycled, refurbished ex-Council stock with a small number of devices donated by local partners.

This project is a partnership with the NHS ICB Coventry and Warwickshire, University of Warwick, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and other partners across the city. A key aim of the project is to measure how digital inclusion has a positive effect on residents' wider lives, across health, wellbeing and use of services.

Thanks to the Fund, the programme #CovConnects has scaled up and accepts an increased number of donations from partners across the city, alongside advancing how it measures the impact of digital reuse and inclusion. Over the past year, #CovConnects distributed around 1555 devices to local organisations. The Fund enabled the programme to provide more organisations with devices, ensuring more vulnerable residents receive access to digital devices.

Giroscope is a housing charity in West Hull. In the past four years, Giroscope’s IT project, GiroTech, has helped the local community get online and provide repair services for broken or disused IT. GiroTech can supply both computers and smartphones to Giroscope tenants and volunteers where needed and in a timely manner.

Through the Fund, Giroscope has built a wealth of experience and skills working with neurodivergent volunteers to develop repair skills and currently employing two neurodivergent volunteers part-time. GiroTech is an established repair shop in West Hull for IT and Smartphones, having more than quadrupled the number of customer repairs completed weekly and reducing the recycling from 19.7% to 15.3% across donations received from the start of the funding period.

Giroscope has built relationships with major businesses within Hull to source devices and wider tech Charitable Foundations, with a 200% increase in device donations.

Green Alliance’s project researched and launched a policy report on the dual and intertwined issues of e-waste and digital inclusion: “Making the Connection: ending digital exclusion with reused devices.”

This report was successfully picked up by policy makers, including Helen Hayes MP, who asked parliamentary questions in February 2025 based on its recommendations. Green Alliance successfully appealed to the Government on this issue and have seen the report echoed in the language of the Government’s Digital Inclusion Action Plan, launched in February 2025.

The Plan emphasises the essential role of device redistribution to tackle digital exclusion and references recommendations from our work, and makes explicit the link between boosting inclusion and supporting circular economy goals. Following the report and Digital Inclusion Action Plan, the government invited Green Alliance to be part of a small group of organisations involved in creating their IT Reuse for Good Charter, aimed at increasing device redistribution from organisations: “The IT Reuse for Good charter - GOV.UK” 

The Making Rooms CIC brings together creativity, technology and advanced manufacturing in a community facility for use by artists, inventors, students, children and everyone. The Time After Time Fund supported The Making Rooms’ ‘Repair Space’ to load new life into laptops by training the community to restore them, giving locals the superpower of repair skills. The repair sessions have shown the diversity of people interested in repair, across genders, ethnicity and an age range of under 13 to over 70!

The Making Rooms then donate repaired devices to digitally excluded people in Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, alongside teaching digital skills of how to use the laptops to supercharge their futures! From the success of the Repair Space, The Making Rooms is building a dedicated room for device repair in their £1.5 million renovation.

Power to Connect (P2C) facilitates the donation, recycling, refurbishment and redistribution of much needed technology from local businesses and residents to families and children in Wandsworth, London.

This funding allowed a big step forward in Power to Connect’s core service of providing refurbished devices. By working closely with Wandsworth Council, local residents and corporate partners, Power to Connect secured 1,364 donations, including  desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. This more than doubled the donations received the previous year.

Power to Connect's dedicated volunteer team refurbished devices and transported them directly to schools and community organisations. Thanks to this collective effort, Power to Connect redistributed 1,042 devices – transforming access to education, services and opportunities for hundreds of local families in Wandsworth.

Alongside distributing devices, Power to Connect expanded their Digital Skills support with daily drop-in sessions at local libraries and 14 courses at Family Hubs. These sessions cover online safety, essential digital skills, and confidence-building, while also offering data assistance and referrals to meet other resident needs. 

Screen Share UK is a nationwide digital inclusion charity that specifically supports refugees and asylum seekers. It provides laptops, phones, internet connectivity, digital skills training, and IT Repair and IT Repair Training.

During the funding period, Screen Share harnessed the power of volunteering to train 47 young refugees in laptop repair. As a result of the training course, the learners were able to repair and redistribute nearly 800 repaired devices to other refugees in need.

As part of the Fund, Screen Share designed a trauma-informed and simple-English laptop repair course. The course covered electrical safety, diagnostics, hardware replacement, software and firmware updates, database management, and customer service. Over four cohorts, more than 150 hours of training were delivered to young people from 12 different nations.

Single Homeless Project helps single Londoners to prevent homelessness by providing support and accommodation, promoting wellbeing, enhancing opportunity and being a voice for change across all 32 London boroughs.

Single Homeless Project’s Time After Time sourced second-hand smartphones, tablets and laptops from internal IT teams and donated from corporate partners. Single Homeless Project secured 118 laptops, 27 phones and 10 tablets for redistribution during the funded project.

Single Homeless Project offered in-house digital skills training, which included an eight-week digital literacy course providing nearly 200 with AQA qualifications and a digital device to keep. Over the period of funding, Single Homeless Project supported 279 service residents with skills and continues to offer the programme at more locations with up to 5 sessions a week.

Single Homeless Project have seen previously digitally excluded clients gain confidence through their programme, and plan, amongst other things, to write their life story, start a YouTube channel, work on a podcast, and write a local newsletter.

SOFEA is an Oxfordshire-based CIO helping people to transform their lives and their communities by supporting with study, wellbeing and work.

SOFEA’s Getting Oxfordshire Online project saves devices from becoming e-waste and uses them to bridge the digital divide using their three refurb Oxfordshire-based hubs. SOFEA provide devices, connectivity and support to people in need, working via more than 200 recipient organisations to support beneficiaries facing multiple barriers. Since SOFEA started in 2021, they have delivered nearly 5000 devices across the county.

With help from the Fund, SOFEA and their partners Aspire and Bicester Green received over 2,200 devices and distributed 1,432 devices after checks and repairs. More than half of the devices received came from community donations (56%), with other major donations coming from businesses and public sector bodies including Oxfordshire County Council, Instron, Pharmagenesis and FareShare.