Why do men’s sheds work in diverse communities?

1. Why do men’s sheds work in diverse communities? Professor Barry Golding University of Ballarat, Australian Men’s Sheds Association Patron b.golding@ballarat.edu.au Discovering Men’s Sheds Conference Leicester, England 29 Sept 2011 NIACE, Age UK, Men’s Health Forum & University of Leicester

2. How come sheds were invented in Australia? Given that: • “Australia is by far the driest, smallest, flattest, most infertile, climatically most unpredictable, and biologically most impoverished continent and the last to be occupied by Europeans”, and • “… had supported the most distinctive human societies and the least numerous human population, of any continent.” • Diamond (2005) Guns, germs and steel.

3. Community men’s sheds are culturally iconic in some nations, springing & spreading in the past 15 years in Australia from: • Backyard, house & garden sheds • Fire brigade, football and rugby sheds • Woodworker’s/turner’s workshops • Vietnam & War Veterans organisations • Places & organisations where workers want to keep trade skills, traditions, tools & engines alive. • Ideas in media & popular texts. • Men’s health, learning & wellbeing workers, researchers, activists & gerontologists (Leon Earle). • Shed ‘pioneers’ & innovators in all states • Men’s sheds, State and national Associations (AMSA) • There are now over 600 community men’s sheds across Australia, doubling every two years for the past decade!

4. In the past four years men’s sheds have spread rapidly in • Several other Anglophone nations: • New Zealand (35?) • Ireland (35?) • England (50?) • Canada (2?) • Will they adapt, diversity and spread in other non-Anglophone nations?

5. What are community men’s sheds, as developed in Australia since 1995? • Now the largest community association in Australia focused on the needs, health, wellbeing & interests of men. • A new ‘movement’ of shed-based community organisations, mainly for and by men. • Providing a safe, regular, social space, for informal, voluntary activity & programs with many other possibilities & outcomes. • Unlike ‘backyard’ sheds, available to groups of men, independently organised or in auspice arrangements through other community organisations. • Usually (but not always) with a group workshop space, tools and equipment a public, shed-type setting • As diverse as the men and communities they spring from.

6. First, a restating of the important basics: • Sheds work because they are attractive places for men to gather socially, regularly, voluntarily, happily, safely and do hands-on stuff together. • They work best when it’s grassroots, local, by, for and about the local men and the community. • Shedders are active and equal participants: not students, patients, clients or customers. • They should be inclusive and welcoming of all men. • They are not patronizing and do not see men as having ‘a deficit’ or being the problem. • Not naming the shed activity provides freedom to do & talk about important other stuff (including health). • The outcomes are typically diverse and powerful.

7. What do ‘professionals’ see in a shed? A place for: • men’s health (health worker) • masculinities (gender academic) • learning (educator) • counseling about behaviour (psychologist) • retiring and ageing (a gerontologist) • doing stuff (occupational therapist) • men to get out of the house (a sociologist) • social engagement & connection (community services) • tackling substance abuse (drug worker) • research (academic) • wooing votes (politicians) • Men’s lives (and needs) beyond paid work are diverse & do not fit into one, neat, academic box.

8. Sheds work for (and are supported by some governments & professionals) because they: • attract men who are otherwise missing (who won’t access services that patronize them) • provide places to embed programs and meet men, ‘at home’, on their terms • operate and are responsive to diverse men’s diverse needs at a local level. • tick all of the Social Determinants of Health • provide some services free, cheaper or more effectively than govt (This one needs watching …)

9. Men’s sheds have tended to thrive in: • Post-industrial suburban areas • Rural and regional areas (where farmers have moved to town or where ex-tradesmen are concentrated) • Areas hit by crisis & change (with fire, drought, flood and lower socio-economic status) • Areas where the proportion of men ‘beyond paid work (unemployed, out of the workforce, retired) is higher than average. • These are the areas and men service providers and governments have difficulty reaching.

10. Men’s sheds must be for all men • An important reflection on four men who have suggested otherwise … • Racism, homophobia, discrimination on the basis of religion or disability is not acceptable in sport (and is unlawful). • A brief reflection on the role and status of women …

11. Women have actively assisted the spread • Men with female partners typically participate with their strong support (& encouragement). • Women have played major roles in developing & championing many sheds, the movement, plus national & state associations. • Almost all major media stories about sheds have been researched and reported by women. • Women have been behind many shed start ups & the procurement of funds. • Some sheds have a female coordinator. • Some sheds make a local decision to include some women as participants. • Men sometimes shift the stuff they don’t want to deal with to women (eg paperwork, budgeting, accountability).

12. Other groups of men gather in: • most nations, around sport & emergency service organisations • Samoa, around the kava bowl • Scandinavia, around fishing & hunting • Portugal, around pigeon racing • Mediterranean counties, around coffee • Maldives, where fishing nets are fixed. • ‘Sheds’ won’t be needed everywhere, in all nations or for all men, but some of the same principles are transferable.

13. Learning through the national Australian (and State) conferences • 1st National Men’s Shed Conference 2005,Lakes Entrance, Victoria, organized by Gary Green & Orbost Men’s Shed. • 2nd National ConferenceManly NSW, Sept 2007, organized by Lane Cove Men’s Shed & Uniting Church (also Tasmania) • 3rd National Conference Hobart, Tasmania: Aug 2009 Organized by AMSA with Pete’s Shed, Bridgewater (also in Western Australia) • 4th National Conference Brisbane, Queensland, Aug 2011, organized by AMSA & QMSA, at which the International Confederation of Men’s Sheds Associations was first convened (also in New South Wales, Victoria & South Australia) • Leicester ‘Discovering Men’s Sheds’ 29 Sept 2011 • 5th Conference Melbourne AMSA& VMSA, 2013.

14. In Australia, learning about sheds is through: • diverse community-based organisations that auspice sheds & service providers • AMSA & state men’s shed associations • State Govt Support mainlyin Victoria: other states in Australia are likely to follow suit - once more evidence is there of hard outcomes & ‘throughput’ (a double-edged sword …) • Federal Govt support of AMSA • Non-Government Organisations (eg Rotary, Veterans, Aged-Care, Uniting Care, Catholic Church, Salvation Army) • Govt Programs (eg Department of Veterans Affairs, Adult & Community Education; Indigenous; Health & Wellbeing, Local Govt). • Shed Forums & Shed Crawls (eg Ballarat 2011)

15. What do men learn in sheds? • Hands-on skills through practical, productive activity. • The positive value of leisure activity & friendships with other men. • Importance of health, fitness, relationships, identities as men & emotional wellbeing. • Coping with changes associated with unemployment, separation, ageing, disability & retirement. • To develop, share & enjoy lives & identities beyond work & home.

16. Why do sheds work? #1 • They positively accommodate men with an aversion to formal education. • They encourage mentoring & sharing of leisure, trade, technical, craft, health & safety skills. • They match the specific learning needs of the men that use them & make men ‘feel at home’ and valuable. • The focus is on the needs of men as joint participants in the activity.

17. Shed-type settings work #2 because they provide opportunities for: • active participation & situated, informal learning in communities of (men’s) practice • safe, positive, therapeutic & male-positive contexts where men feel ‘at home’. • a voluntary social & community outlet for diverse, mainly older men. • opportunities for sharing & mentoring • opportunities for informally learning how to stay well, fit & healthy • new types of collaboration, therefore • building better communities.

18. Men learn new ways to: • break social isolation & ‘underfoot syndrome’ • regularly share workshop-based, hands-on, trade skills with men & sometimes boys • give back to their communities • model positive and diverse ways of being a man (particularly beyond work) • regularly participate & socialise in community settings with other men • learn, that does not involve shame.

19. Shed practice informs educators by identifying factors that ‘put men off’ formal learning & keep them unwell & out of work: • previous negative experiences of schooling • a dislike of formal learning & literacies • limited access to education, training & services that match men’s preferred ways of learning • limited access to computers & internet • age discrimination in employment & training • sickness, disability, caring & family roles.

20. ‘Shoulder to shoulder’ activity is: • enjoyable, hands-on & practical. • doing real tasks, of real & transferable benefit (to individual, group, family, business or community). • sometimes outside. • about informal mentoring in groups rather than teaching. • in places where men already feel ‘at home’, sometimes with other men. • sometimes (but not always) in a community shed.

21. Men’s shed fundamentals • It has to be voluntary, safe, social and mainly hands-on, for all men & the community. • Men who participate in sheds are not clients, customers, patients or students. • It is not from a deficit or ageist model. • If learning or health are to be introduced it has to be on men’s terms, at their invitation & involving pedagogies which work for men. • While women are sometimes involved in some way, the shed practice works best if it’s solely or mainly for & by men.

22. For men (and all adults)… • When will governments learn the social (& economic) value of grassroots wellbeing through community organisations rather than just measuring the cost? • How can other services be transformed in similar way ways that value participants over clients?