New project aims to stop isolation and help people learn crafts

Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders, affecting around one in six adults in the UK and also associated with other mental health issues, such as anxiety, stress and loneliness.

The impacts on physiques of the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis has seen people becoming isolated and lonely through lack of or loss of contact with people, but from this have come new ways to counter loneliness and depression and learn new skills at the same time.

The All Saints Action Network (ASAN) in Wolverhampton has put plans in place to begin the Man Shed initiative, an initiative which started in Australia and has become a popular project across Europe and America.

The slogan for Men's Sheds is "Shoulder To Shoulder", shortened from "Men don't talk face to face, they talk shoulder to shoulder", adopted after the 2008 Australian Men's Shed Association (AMSA) conference.

The initiative has seen an 89 per cent decrease in depression since joining Men’s Sheds across the UK, with around 13,728 families benefitting from the work done by Men's Shed

An estimated 13728 families are currently benefitting from the great work Men’s Sheds does across the UK and ASAN chief executive Shobha Asar-Paul said the new initiative plan was to help everyone to connect.

She said: "It's primarily for people, even though it's called Man Shed, and is for anyone aged 18 and over to come and do things which are crafty and working with wood, as well as connecting with others.

"It's also about finding a purpose in people's lives and reducing loneliness, increasing connection and getting involved in local activities."

Ms Asar-Paul said there were a lot of people who volunteered at the Workspace, which is based in the All Saints area of Wolverhampton, and who were looking to do more with that community, so said the proposed initiative might get a lot of support as there wasn't an equivalent in the city.

She said: "We have a lot of volunteers in our Wood Sense group who come down, with some coming just once a week or a couple of times a week, and they just want to connect with others and make things and enjoy this community where they can meet and make things with wood.

"There's been a lot of demand for this, so I reached out to Man Shed UK as we don't have a Wolverhampton one and decided to start one here.

"We've already got a venue and we've got a lot of waste wood, so it will really help with the local environment as it would otherwise end up in a landfill and we'll give people who are isolated a place to go, so I think we're in the perfect spot."

Anyone interested in taking part in the Man Shed initiative can find out more at a meeting taking place at ASAN on All Saints Road in Wolverhampton on December 11 and by going to asan.org.uk