Helping his community to borrow instead of buy: Allan Smith and SHARE Oxford

Oxford guardian, Allan, is helping members of his community to prevent waste with SHARE. The organisation is on a mission to discourage a culture of waste by enabling people to borrow items instead of buy.

Founder of SHARE, Maurice, explains how volunteers like Allan have enabled the organisation to grow, and build a strong community of like-minded people. Volunteers help to educate others on the importance of reducing the need for unnecessary production and consumption.

“Our organisation has two core elements: the first is a library of things. We have over 650 items that are available to be borrowed, ranging from garden tools to sports equipment to musical instruments – essentially, things that people either don’t use everyday or want to try out.

The second element is our repair cafe. People can bring in their tired or worn items such as a pair of jeans, a lamp or a clock, and our volunteer repairers will fix their belongings while educating people about how their item works and how to look after them properly.

“The concept is based around sharing and changing people’s understanding of what it means to own and consume products. Through putting ideas into action, we are helping the community to reduce the impact of their waste on the environment and move towards healthier consumption practices.

“For almost four years, I was leading the organisation on my own. Allan now comes along every Thursday to volunteer offering his help, advice and opinions which provide an incredible amount of support for me.”

During his time as a Dot Dot Dot guardian, Allan has spent 15 months (and counting) volunteering as the chair of SHARE Oxford.

“My voluntary role is to help the organisation develop and become more successful so that we can grow our community of borrowers and encourage more people to reflect on how they consume modern day products and goods. While Covid-19 has meant that we can’t be as outward facing as we’d like to have been over the last 18 months, we’re hoping to come back stronger in the near future.”

Creating a community, not just a business 

SHARE not only provide an option for people to reduce usage and waste, but also encourage users and volunteers to become advocates of the concepts that underpin the organisation, helping to build a community of like-minded thinkers.

“The first time Allan came to volunteer, he was struck by our less formal ways of working and how our users and other volunteers were participating together towards a main goal. I’ve observed Allan and many others go from thinking about the philosophies we represent to actually implementing them in their own lives and actively encouraging others to do the same in the community.”

Recognising the importance of human engagement is what motivates Allan to help grow the organisation’s collective. “I have had a formal business background until now, and so being part of a co-operative who are working together to do good in the world has given me a fresh perspective on how people can come together to bring about positive societal change. I am keen to grow our borrowing and repairing scheme further so that we can continue to give people a practical and inclusive way of changing the world together.”

To discover how you can become part of the SHARE Oxford community, visit the SHARE website. 

You can also keep up with our #10Years celebration where we’re highlighting guardians from the past ten years  and the voluntary organisations our guardians give their time to.