What is a Mens Shed
The modern Mens Shed is an updated version of the shed in the back yard tyhat has long been a part of Australian culture.Men's Sheds are springing up all over the country.If you looked inside one you might see a number of men restoring furniture, perhaps restoring bicycles for a local school,maybe makeing mynah bird traps, fixing lawn mowers or makeing a cubby house for a community raffle.You might also see a few younger men working with older men to learn new skills and maybe learning something about life from the men they work with.You will see tea bags, coffee cups and a comfortable area where men can sit and talk.You will probably also see an area where men can learn to cook for themselves or they can learn to contact there families on the internet.
So what is so special about this new type of Men's Shed? Most men have learned from our culture that they don't talk about feelings and emotions.There has been little encouragement for men to take an interest in their own health and well being.Unlike woman most men are reluctant to talk about their emotions and that means that they don't usually ask for help.Probably because of this many men are less healthy than woman,they drink more,take more risks and they suffer more from isolation,loneliness and depression.Relationship breakdown,retrenchment or early retirement from their job,loss of children following divorce,physical or mental illness are just some of the problems that men find it hard to deal with on their own.
Good health is based on many factors including feeling good about yourself,being productive and valuable to your community,connecting to friends and maintaining a healthy and active body and an active mind.Becoming a mamber of a Men's Shed givesa man that safe and busy enviroment where he can find many of these things in an atmosphere of old fashioned mateship.And importantly,there is no preasure.Men can just come and have a yarn and a cuppa if that is all they are looking for.
Members of Men's Sheds come from all walks of life.The bond that unites them is that they are men with time on there hands and they would like something meaningfull to do with that time.
A good Men's Shed has a cordinator who has both the technical and social skills to develop a safe and happy enviroment where men are welcome to work on a project of their choice in their own time and where the only must is to observe safe working practices.All in the spirit of mateship.
Because men don't make a fuss about their problems,these problems have have consistantly been ignored or swept under the mat by both our health system and our modern society. It's time for a change and the Men's Shed movement is one of the most powerfull tools we have in helping men to once again become valued and valuable members of our community.
Come and see for yourself.
The number of Sheds has grown rapidly but in the early days there was no central referance source and a great deal of duplication and reinvention occured.In April 2007 The Australian Men's Shed Association (AMSA) was set up to act as a resource centre for all Sheds and to promote the idea of independent Community Men's Sheds.The Association represents and promotes the Shed movement,and acts as a communications hub using a website and the regular news letters, copies of which are archived on this site.
Association Link http://mensshed.org
A shorter description of Men’s Shed could be:
A Men’s Shed is any community-based, non-commercial organisation which is open to all men where the primary activity is the provision of a safe, friendly and inclusive environment where the men are able to gather and/or work on meaningful projects at their own pace, in their own time and in the company of other men and where the primary objective is to advance the health and well- being of the participating men. Men’s sheds may look like a shed in you back yard but they can be seen an innovative mix between community education and health promotion projects.“Men don’t talk face to face; they talk shoulder to shoulder”
