Stepping through the doors of the Taylors Hill Men’s Shed you’re greeted by a lively buzz of conversation. Its members, the ‘sheddies’, spend hours each week making projects in the workshop, playing billiards, or just simply sitting around the common table drinking coffee, chatting and making fun of each other.

Mario Pace and Trevor Penny are team leaders at the men’s shed and have both been a part of the community for years. Penny says that when he was retiring, he wanted to join the shed to try out some new skills and to make new friends.

“One thing I wanted to learn was woodturning,” he tells upstart. “Fortunately, Mario here is very experienced at woodturning and was able to help me. That’s what it’s like here, we help each other.”

After he retired, Pace’s daughters had suggested he join a men’s shed. He had tried a few, but none of them worked for him until he found the community at Taylors Hill.

“When I retired, I was sitting home getting more depressed day by day, then I came here and found this community,” he tells upstart. “It gave me something to look forward to, I’ve been coming ever since.”

For Pace and Penny, the shed assisted with improving their mental wellbeing. According to the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, men’s sheds have been found to assist in addressing social isolation and boost men’s overall mental health. Whether it is through manual crafts, speakers, events or the opportunity to expand their social circle, men’s sheds give sheddies a purpose.

Penny says he and the other sheddies use the community as an outlet to express their own personal struggles, whether that be through making projects or just having a chat.

“One of the things with men is we don’t share our feelings or our medical problems, we just grin and bare it,” he says.

“Whereas here you can talk to other guys about anything.”

To assist in their mission to maintain mental wellbeing, the Taylors Hill sheddies participate in a student mentoring program with the Taylors Hill Primary School. They teach woodworking skills to groups of young boys as part of a five-week program. Pace says teachers will usually pick kids who may be hands-on learners as well as those who don’t tend to thrive in a traditional classroom environment. Many of the students come in not knowing how to hold a screwdriver and leave with a new level of confidence in all aspects of life.

“We teach them how to use drills, screwdrivers, they watch us use power tools,” he says.

“Their eyes light up when they see a big machine going, I would have been the same at their age too, it’s a really great program.”

Teachers have spoken to Penny about the value of the program, and tell him that they have noticed that it also has a positive effect in the classroom.

“All of a sudden, they can see why they’re learning maths in a real-life situation. I think that’s what tends to fire them up,” he says. “A lot of the boys, after they’ve done the mentoring program, their attendance and their application of schoolwork improves out of sight. So, we’re pretty proud of that.”

By the end of the program not only have the kids sharpened their skills in the classroom but they have become more confident socially. Pace described how their individual personalities shine through as the program progresses.

“It starts out with the kids very reserved and by the last week they’re picking on us, calling us old and fat,” he says. “That’s how comfortable they’ll get with us.”

“One boy came to us at the end saying how much he wants to be sheddie. He was desperate to be a sheddie. It’s that feeling of belonging they want to come back to.”

Pace says benefits go both ways. While it took him a while to get used to speaking in public, he said he built his confidence and got a lot out of the experience. All the sheddies are rewarded as they experience hard work pay off while building their own skills.

“You can see it in the boys, their self-esteem really improves,” he says. “It’s not magic but it helps, and you can see that in the way the kids grow throughout the program.”

“As old men, seeing them in awe of what we do, it gives our egos a real boost as well.”

The Taylors Hill Men’s Shed prides itself on making it an open and welcoming space for all. This community focus allows the sheddies to come together, help each other and share their stories without fear of judgement. Penny says that is what made him choose his men’s shed over all others.

“You can talk to the other guys and nobody’s going to judge you,” he says. “The camaraderie and the support, that’s the reason why we’re all here.”

Article: Ella Zammit is a second-year Bachelor of Media and Communications (Journalism) student at La Trobe University. You can follow her on Twitter @EllaJZammit.

Photo: Supplied by author