Today we received a visit from Chris McDonald, MP. It follows a similar visit by Matt Vickers, MP a month ago. We had invited them and others to the Shed to discover for themselves what Norton Men’s Shed (and others locally, in UK and worldwide can do for men, by speaking to some Shedders!
Chris spent nearly 90 minutes with us and it began in the usually unplanned way! This time, the first thing Chris came across was the wheelchair lift in the down position awaiting Wheelchair Steve’s anticipated arrival. On cue, Steve rolled in and demonstrated the lift he got at the Shed!
Inside Chris met the Shedders in an approximation to a circle and Shedders told some of their personal stories and the various reasons why they needed and benefitted from belonging to the Shed. Similar stories to those heard by Matt Vickers.
Chris saw little made but did receive the Golden Egg Cup and a Locomotion key fob made. As with Matt Vickers, we wanted Chris to understand the Shed rather than being distracted by equipment!
It was interesting because Chris’ background was in the steel industry and the importance of practical activities involving hands and minds resonated with him.
We made it clear that whilst we wanted MPs to see our Shed, the story was really about the Shed movement and projects that are about engaging with people that are not Sheds! People need social communities to belong to in order to stave off loneliness and isolation and the mental wellbeing they impact.
Graham unwrapped a couple of mystery packages that arrived at the Shed the day before. They turned out to be a pair of pop up banners from UK Men’s Sheds Association.
As one of the pop up barriers was erected, along came two men. They bowled up from the Bowls Club. There followed a very interesting conversation that could lead to some collaboration to help people. More on this as it hopefully evolves.
In the afternoon
Paul and Graham went to Consett to view a laser cutter/engraver that had been seen on Facebook.
It was unused although not new and it was decided it would be a good buy at its much reduced price. It should cut ply up to about 4mm thick and burn/engrave designs onto thicker material, including acrylic.
It requires proper setting up top ensure alignment of mirrors that direct the laser accurately.
This will be another creative activity for Shedders to learn and master.
This builds on the 3D printing which is catching on. We are planning some training workshops on this, the first later in May at the Land of Iron, Skinningrove we hope.
Dust extractors
Delivered today were two Record Power Dust Extraction units that operate a comfortable decibel noise levels.
These are for both workshops and are paid for by the Pitching for Purpose award from The Teesside Charity.
We are thus building on what we have to get to what we need.
We received a gift from children at Billingham Primary School
Tea, chocolates and Fox’s biscuits in a presentation bag with a tank saying “Thank You”.
What for? For the bird boxes, bug hotel and hedgehog nesting box given to the school. These were courtesy of Brian and Mick.
It is a reminder that small things often mean a lot to others.
Thanks to Peter The Lollipop Man for steering this to a good outcome.
Latest news on the status of Norton Men’s Shed
The Shed became a registered charity in February this year.
We are now registered with HMRC to recover tax paid on Gift Aid and other small donations.
It will be a bit of work to ensure we have evidence for donations, but it will generate some useful additional income.
Posted to Facebook originally
The Travellers by Mikey
Locomotion 1 by Mikey
“Growing in proportion” is sustainability
Norton Shed has grown a lot, particularly in the last 18 months.
Growing plants from seed is a very similar process to developing our Shed! Early development is about carefully nurturing something very small and fragile, that a frost can kill overnight. In the early stages there’s nothing to see above the surface of the seed compost. However, there is a lot happening below ground as a dry seed begins to draw in water and comes alive again!
Our Shed was like that. At a first exploratory meeting in a now closed Norton Costa Coffee two people came. However, one remained outside the cafe (!) and so the first meeting had just Graham and Dave (Tonner). There was no building in which a Shed could be planted although there was a little watering coming from the then one and only Social Prescribing Link Worker (Claire).
Trusting something might happen to germinate the Shed seed, a “very faithful few” began to gently attend to the “nursery” Shed.
We are indebted to those few for working (it was decorating) in very cold conditions in the Norton Cricket Club changing rooms (cricket is a summer game!). We began to see signs of green tips breaking the surface, a sure sign that germination had taken place.
And so growth starts visibly upwards. However, growth can be good growth or risky growth. One of the dangers is that growth becomes disproportionate. Seedlings (and indeed plants) can become “leggy”. They grow upwards in search of light maybe and more plant energy goers into that than, say, leaf development. Seedlings bend towards the light coming through a window and they need turning so that they gain strength all round.
Shed growth took place in several directions in the first 6 to 9 months. We continued to receive fertiliser of encouragement from the growing number of social prescribing link workers, but then we had similar from Norton Sports Charity in the form of the Portacabin as a base! That established a “space platform” allowing us to take up the offer of some excellent equipment from storage at Preston Park (equipment originating from Kiaora Hall in Norton). The Portacabin, of course, provided the Shed with a lot of improvement work to keep a growing band of Shedders busy).
However, the number of Shedders that could be accommodated was 10 – 12 maximum at any one session, limited by the space available to both work and chat. We were running two sessions a week, Tuesday and Friday mornings. We decided to spread to a Monday session and that “grew” into more a chat space than do space since that was the need of those who began to come. Half a dozen Shedders met on a Monday in the early months and now we regularly have the Portacabin full.
Nine months later, as the result of a surprise visit from a social prescribing link worker who specialised in placing cancer patients in activities, we opened a Thursday morning session for men with a cancer diagnosis. “Shedding Light Into Cancer”. Not to dwell on the condition, but to take account of it. So growth also came across the mornings of the week.
However we still needed more space and at the end of the second year Norton Sports Charity agreed to our use of a workspace near to the Portacabin for an additional larger workshop. We could then accommodate 17 – 20 active Shedders on a morning. We acquired more equipment (more than half donated) including 3D design and printing facilities. So expanding on the “interests” front.
Money comes into it, of course. More capacity of various sorts means more cost to operate the Shed (though it is an entirely volunteer-run project). We were able to access grants and awards that has given us (for now at least!) financial sustainability. This has led to the Shed becoming a registered charity in 2025.
What is the message?
. . . that we had to work on several fronts in a balanced way to grow the capacity of the Shed to help more people to help themselves.
How will we keep growing?
The answer is by looking beyond what we already do and to perceive the ways we might grow “influence” in helping reach more people.
The beyond includes new crafts, skills and technologies. As new Shedders join, we discover they have experience and skills that we do not already have or are needed to strengthen what we have.
A strong community.The second and arguably richer seam of potential is partnerships. It could hold a lot of interest for some Shedders – more relationships. It can also benefit our community by developing capacity not only numerically but also in novel new ways of bringing people together – great if it involved intergenerational activities with young and old sharing know-how!
We are beginning to identify other projects on Teesside that are essentially doing the same thing as the Shed. Having the same “can do” ethos that working together can leverage.
[Example. We had seen this in Whitby through Whitby Beach Sweep. Collecting rubbish from the beach by volunteer effort. Surely totally different to a Shed?!?. Not so when one of the key objectives of this group is to bring people together. The world and Whitby (!) has numerous lonely and/or isolated people who lack a road map to get back into community to enjoy simple friendship. A beach sweep is a larger group that breaks into small teams of workers. Talking while they work.]
Making partnerships based on openness and trust and working to help each other (without contracts!) and perhaps working together to found new initiatives to benefit people. We are currently exploring possibilities for collaborations and are creating a framework for it.
Who has built the Shed? The Shedders who are the beneficiaries and the volunteers.
Where are we going in the near future – in the remainder of 2025, our 4th year?
As well as partnership working with others (being worked on in the early stages, with more to gradually share as things take shape) there are some achievable stepping-stones that could lead to unknown destinations!
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We currently do this in our heads but we should commit it to paper for good communication!
We intend to open a “Skills Shop” on a Wednesday morning, in May/June, but starting small. It will be for people with a skill (“work ready” and possibly able to take on an apprentice!) or people learning together in pairs a new skill that hopefully becomes shareable with others. This matches our philosophy that Shedders and not just “leaders” should lead! We’ll need to know what people intend to do before they start since H&S needs to be considered. [3D Paul has already been doing this for 3D design and printing with Derick as an apprentice.]
- We will continue to offer some input to BEAM at HMP Holme House in a reshaped release programme due to start in May. If you want to know more, speak to Graham or Paul. It involves remote “3D design and printing” (imagine that with no equipment allowed in!), but not necessarily just that as hopefully things evolve. The BEAM-led course for prisoners who choose to engage with it is to prepare them for release into a possibly very changed community .
“Hands-on, brains-engaged” vacation and possibly after school learning workshops, initially covering 3D design. It will require presence of a responsible adult (ideally a parent or grandparent), not just to satisfy safeguarding and behaviour (!) but to also learn about a non-mess way to design and make able to be done at home on a computer to continue so as to practice the acquired new skill. These are sound life skills to learn for kids (upper primary) that they can build upon. It is the basis for some new manufacturing. Lots of scope here for partnering too.- Once the messy cutting end of the Locomotion 1 backdrop is completed for Billingham, the new space gained this year for a major new project (a OO gauge model railway) can begin in earnest. ASAP.
- We are upgrading the dust extraction and collection in both workshops (thanks to the Pitching for Purpose award from The Teesside Community)
- We hope finally to get on with cladding the Portacabin with steel profile sheeting (similar to the appearance of the adjacent football club building). Finance for this came from the North East Ladies Day (NELD). It is part of a package of site improvements/permissions that were lodged by Norton Sports Charity with the planning authorities.
- We have a WW1 tank to build for the November Remembrance Service for Norton young people and there is an inkling that we might help another charity with a summer house project.
- Plus everything else that has been forgotten or might come about.!
At last the World is One
Jigsaw finished at last.
However, remember that the jigsaw is just illustrative of the way jig-saw pieces which are individually unique have to be reviewed and worked with to discover where they belong – which is similar to the challenge of partnerships.
Of course, not all pieces belong to the same jigsaw! Always open a sealed bag!