Wigan Mens Shed - Reducing Men in Social Isolation

Aim

Reduce Social Isolation in Men by providing hubs where Men can come along, make friends, whilst working on projects such as Woodworking

Get your exclusive Wigan Men's Sheds Wooden Reindeers - in time for Christmas!!

For a small donation of £15, you will receive one of our Wooden Reindeers

Who we are? 

Our staff team is made up of 3 Directors; Jonathan Ashcroft, Jack Winterbottom and David Baxter.  Since January 2018, Wigan Men's Sheds has seen 45 Men become members and use the service.  Our members use the service daily.  

Wigan Men's Sheds not only supports Men to improve their Health and Wellbeing, but also improves their skills and knowledge and allow Men to make products that can be sold to the local community.

Men have attended our Men’s Sheds and been shown to see a reduction in taking their medication, to take part in activities that they enjoy, and make products using skills they otherwise didn't realise they had.  Some Men have made Wood based items that have been purchased by members of the local community, where upon joining the Men’s Sheds they didn't have the confidence or belief in their own ability to make these products.  

Men are able to speak to the Men’s Sheds staff and co-design their experience on their own personal needs and aims.  We also help our members to try out new things, discover talents they never knew they had, and deepen their confidence, knowledge and skills base.   

Here is our Lead Director, Jonathan Ashcroft, discussing how the Wigan Men's Sheds was established and the story behind how the project has helped to improve his health and wellbeing

What is a Men's Shed? 

Men’s Sheds allows Men, regardless of age or ability, to increase their self-esteem and feel better about themselves, make new friends and learn new skills, be it in Woodworking, Gardening, 3D printing etc.

Our Men's Sheds project aims to eliminate the stigma associated with mental health, suicide and self-harm, with a particular focus on earlier help, timely support, supporting recovery, prevention from reaching crisis point and suicide prevention and supporting people who have reached crisis point.  Men's Sheds are shown to help prevent mental health conditions escalating and aid recovery.  Mens Sheds supports Men to become independent and self-reliant which in turn will reduce demands on the health and social care systems.

Mens Sheds also supports Men into employment, plus supports young people to look at becoming 'Employers, not just Employees'.  Our youngest Mens Sheds member is 11 and we are confident he will become a Mens Sheds leader and gain employment at the age of 16. 

Made in Wigan - everyone has that 'Special Something'

We are part of the Made in Wigan project, led by Abram Ward Community Cooperative, and as part of this we will support them with their Tiered level approach to training, which will ensure that anyone, regardless of ability, can progress from non-skilled to highly skilled at making items that can be sold, ensuring that money stays locally in the Wigan Borough, whilst also having the Health and Wellbeing benefits. Our training will allow members to move on to more complex products as their skills develop.  Our staff will provide Information, Advice and Guidance to all members and ensure everyone is made to feel part of the staff team and more confident in their abilities.  

By encouraging people to 'Buy Local' we aim to increase the demand of people buying products made by the Men’s Sheds members, which in turn will allow Men’s Sheds members to be employed as part of an increased workforce.

 We also support our members who may aspire to set up their own Community Business / Micro Enterprise, by signposting members to the Made in Wigan project.

No matter what age, people still have a skill, our aim is to grow this skill

Why we need your support?

Our aim is to increase the service across Wigan Borough to ensure we can support more Men and their families.  The numbers of Men we are supporting is growing weekly and we are keen to work in more places across Wigan Borough, and support more Men who have a variety of different skills.  To achieve this we are looking to raise up to £20,000 which will enable Wigan Mens Sheds to grow.

Our Partners

Wigan Mens Sheds working in partnership with a number of organisations.

Abram Ward Community Cooperative - our lead support partner who we are part of their Made in Wigan team.

Connolly's Ltd - Connolly's have supported us to grow and offer valuable advice and guidance.  

Hales Joinery - to enable our service to grow, we are working in partnership with Hales Joinery to provide a base from which we could grow our workforce via apprenticeships and work placements

Wigan and Leigh Hospice - support our service by signposting Men who are looking for activities in the community

Community Circles - support our service by looking to create additional Mens Sheds services within Care Homes

Embrace Wigan and Leigh - Embrace are also based at Platt Bridge Community Zone, and are a key referral partners into our Mens Sheds service

MissPlaces - MissPlaces are our partners who support Women who may be in Social Isolation.  MissPlaces are also based a Platt Bridge Community Zone.

TasteBuds Café - TasteBuds are also based at Platt Bridge Community Zone and look after our Men with much needed Food and Drink provision!

Wigan Council - key referral partner and funded Wigan Mens Sheds to launch in January 2018

This project successfully funded on 7th January 2019