Since 1998, Australia has used sheds as a way to reach men who might otherwise be adrift. The premise is this: The best way to build communities of men is through shared work—the gentle joy of being side-by-side in a shed, working on meaningful projects. The Australian Men’s Sheds Association, as it’s known, has an unofficial motto: “Men don’t talk face to face—they talk shoulder to shoulder.”
So, what is a men’s shed? The requirements are fairly loose—it has to be accessible to all men; create a safe, friendly and healing environment to get things done at one’s own pace; have the objective above all else of improving male members’ well-being and health; and encourage them to be a part of their community. They don’t even have to be in sheds, with garages, portable cabins, and other community buildings providing admirable alternatives.
Over two decades, the organization has blossomed. There are now 985 Men’s Sheds across Australia, reaching an estimated 150,000 individuals. Now, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland are all following suit, to striking effect—according to one recent study, attending a Men’s Shed left men with a sense of belonging, a surge of self-esteem and confidence, and new friendships with people they trusted. More than that, as one 72-year-old noted, “It saved me from an early grave. I was in a right state and this was good for me.”
“The shed’s magnificence is in the infinite possibilities that lie in the imagination of its creator. Your shed can be a monument to the time in your life that you were happiest, or it can signal the start of a new way of being.” — Joel Bird, author of The Book of Shed