What role do sheds play in engaging older men?

1. What role do sheds play in engaging older men?Professor Barry Golding, University of BallaratPatron, Australian Men’s Shed AssociationSocial enterprise for wellbeing and mental healthconferenceNambucca Valley, New South Wales

2. What role do sheds play in engaging older men? Professor Barry Golding School of Education, University of Ballarat, Australia Patron, Australian Men’s Shed Association b.golding@ballarat.edu.au Social enterprise for wellbeing and mental health conferenceNambucca Valley, New South Wales, 24 Feb 2011

3. Intentions • Establish why men beyond work are increasingly important to socially include. • Use research to identify the learning & wellbeing value to men of community organisations & enterprises • Identify what it is about community men’s sheds in particular that engage older men.

4. What has changed for men • Age (and literacy/IT) discrimination • Longevity (and unclear or ambiguous identities) post-work. • Poor health & wellbeing statistics at all ages (including suicide risk when young and old). • Loss of acceptable social spaces to be with other men beyond work.

5. My research in the past decade • Adult learning in community settings (2000-2003) Where are the men? • Fire and emergency services organisations (2004) • Men’s sheds (2007) • Five organisation types in WA and three States, including sheds (2009) • Five organisation types in Europe & Pacific, including sheds (2011-12)

6. Locations of the 2009 research

7. Community organisations involved in the 2009 Australian research • Adult & community education (where it exists) • Sport • Fire & emergency inc coast & surf rescue, ambulance • Age-related & disability • Indigenous, religious & cultural • Men’s special interest (Including community men’s sheds)

8. National Seniors Australia 6 sites: 2 in SA, 2 in NSW, 2 in Tasmania; 6 organisation types; urban to remote; 227 surveys & 42 interviews with men 50+ • Blacktown (NSW:): Blacktown City Bowling and Recreation Club, Blacktown Men's Pottery Group, Macquarie Community College and The Original Cocoon Club. Bridgewater (Tas): Bridgewater Anglers Association Inc; Bridgewater Library & Online Access Centre, Gagebrook Community Centre Computer Club, New Life Ministry, Gagebrook Uniting Church, Pete's Community Workshed, Riverside Community Garden & Nursery, St John Ambulance Tasmania, St Paul's Catholic Church Bridgewater, Veterans Memorial Centre. Ceduna (SA): Ceduna & District Bowling Club, Ceduna Adult Activity Centre - Ceduna District Health Service, Ceduna Combined Emergency Services, Ceduna RSL Senior Citizens, Ceduna Uniting Church, Far West Surfing Community, South Australia TAFE – Ceduna Campus. Lismore (NSW, BG): ACE North Coast Lismore Community College, Lismore City SES, Lismore Over 50s Learning Centre Inc, Lismore Rugby Union Club, Lismore Senior Citizen's Club, Men's & Family Centre Programs, Richmond Valley Wood Crafters Association Inc, U3A Northern Rivers (Lismore) Inc, Alstonville Seventh Day Adventist Men’s Shed. Noarlunga (SA): Aldinga Community Shed, Christie's Beach High School Adult Re-entry, Christie's Beach Meals on Wheels, Elizabeth House Over 50s Woodwork Shed, Hackham Golf Club, Hackham West Community Centre, Men's South Talk, Port Noarlunga Bowling Club, Southern Men's Group, Salvation Army Noarlunga Community Church. Oatlands (Tas): Oatlands Online Access Centre, Oatlands Rotary Club, Oatlands RSL & Bowls Club, Oatlands Uniting Church.

9. WA DET 6 WA sites: 6 organisation types inner & outer urban, regional, rural, remote, very remote; 187 surveys & 37 audio recorded interviews with men of all ages. • Albany Activ Albany, Albany Maritime Foundation ‘Boat Shed’, Albany Aboriginal Heritage Reference Group, Albany Sea Rescue, Albany Speedway Club, Great Southern TAFE Albany; Carnarvon: Carnarvon Fire & Rescue, Carnarvon Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation, Carnarvon Senior Citizens Club, Central West TAFE Carnarvon, Gascoyne Off Road Racing Club, Carnarvon Police & Citizens Youth Club, Gascoyne Masonic Lodge. • Denham/Shark Bay: Denham Volunteer Fire Brigade, Shark Bay Pistol Club, Shark Bay Silver Chain, Shark Bay Telecentre, St Andrews Anglican Church Shark Bay. • Denmark: Denmark Anglican Church, Denmark Arts Council, Denmark Environment Centre, Denmark Over 50s Association, Denmark Surf Life Saving Club, Denmark Telecentre, Denmark Volunteer Fire & Rescue, Woodturners of Denmark. • Fremantle: Fremantle Men’s Shed, Glyde-In Community Learning Centre, Hilton Park Bowling & Recreation Club, Silver Chain Nursing Association, The Meeting Place. • Kwinana: Challenger TAFE, Kwinana Bowling Club, Kwinana Fire & Emergency Services, Kwinana RSL, Kwinana Salvation Army, Kwinana Senior Citizens' Club.

10. Data available on men’s learning & wellbeing • From two projects in 2009. • 48 organisations with older men (50+) • 36 organisations with men of all ages • Total 800+ pages of transcripts from 79 interviews • Total 414 surveys, 60% response.

11. Australian Communication Skills Framework (ACSF) 11

12. What does the research show? • Men want to stay fit, active & well & re-create lives. • Men enjoy regular, social contact with other men outside of work & home. • Men have many skills - to make & do things, mentor others & give back to the community. • Men need to learn to cope with unexpected changes. • Lifewide and lifelong learning are valuable. • Not having a work identity, health or wellbeing, social or community networks, is difficult, often isolating, debilitating or depressing for men (& women). • Community organisations other than adult learning organisations make a positive difference to men’s lives, health & wellbeing. • Community men’s sheds ‘tick’ all of the above.

13. Men involved in community organisations in paid employment • Mostly 40-70: keen to learn (hands-on; negative about formal learning). • Play active leadership & mentoring roles, feel like they belong & give back to community. • Satisfied with life, but more likely to have business or job issues. • Welcome women. • Want other members to have more learning opportunities.

14. Men involved in community organisations who are retired • More likely to be married, fathers & grandfathers, completed more school. • In the past five years: 1/4 major health crisis. • Only 1/3 interested in more learning,1/6 ‘maybe’. • Enjoy women, but appreciate & benefit from regular exposure to men’s company. • Identify age & health as main reasons not to learn.

15. Unemployed men involved in community organisations • Combination of debilitating circumstances(apart from unemployment) 1/2 married or with partner; 2/3 access to a car; 1/5 relied on others to get to the organisation; 1/2 on pension; in past five years: much less ‘satisfied with life generally’,1/4 depression, financial crisis, significant loss in their lives; difficulties with business or job, a new impairment or disability; separation from partner or a major health crisis … • But benefit most from community involvement & social inclusion:get access to men’s health info; feel better about themselves; feel happier at home; sense that literacy skills, confidence, social & organisational skills have improved; perceive the organisation: as a place to meet friends, get out of the house, learn new skills, keep themselves healthy.

16. What does the research show? • Rich opportunities for learning all forms of communication (as defined within the Australia Core Skills Framework) are available informally within community organisations & enterprises. • The opportunities are richest in smaller community organisations & enterprises where older men work in teams as co-participants in practical contexts, and where there are opportunities to take on responsible roles. • The notable exception was is in adult education and training providers, where men tend to be patronized and treated as students, fee-paying customers, clients or patients (or illiterate) from deficit models.

17. World Health Organisation Social Determinants of Disadvantage

18. What does the research show? • Wellbeing is most enhanced for older men in contexts that cast them as co-participants in hands-on, shared, group activities & social enterprises. • Benefits are most powerful in settings where older men’s changing needs, wants, interests & aspirations are addressed. • Lower level vocational training alone is demonstrably inappropriate & ineffective.

19. ‘Off the shelf’ education & training for older men are typically … • Formal & accredited (curriculum, assessment) • Vocationally & youth-oriented (for paid work) • Based around people as clients or consumers • Meritocratic & hierarchical • Privatized & user pays • Delivered independent of context • ICT and literacy dependent. • Many of these approaches are totally inappropriate for older & unemployed men.

20. Informal lifewide & lifelong education, in most areas of Australia, is… • in its public form, missing, not accessible to, not used by or inappropriate for many men, particularly by older, unemployed, rural & Indigenous men • mainly accessible informally via a rich array of diverse, community-based organisations & enterprises dependent on volunteers. • the only option for many men. ‘Is the role of community to mop up the ill effects of the market, while the costs of this are borne by individuals rather than the state?’(Levitas 2000)

21. What is the situation in the where you come from for older men not in work?

22. Productive ageing requires learning to adjust to changes in: • Strength, mobility, wellbeing & health • Life beyond work • Income & retirement • Affiliation with members of older age groups • Social, civic & family roles & responsibilities • Personal & family relationships • Living arrangements • Re-creation & many other changes …. These are typically not built into existing programs or services for men.

23. Where can men’s sheds make a difference? • Everywhere there are men beyond work (particularly older men) • Where the emphasis is on the value to men’s wellbeing and learning - without foregrounding or naming either. • Where a series of events have adversely affected men, family & community. • For all men who have limited contact with other men (alone or ‘underfoot’; beyond work; damaged by changes in work, life, relationships, substance abuse or climate; not mobile, with a mental health issue or disability; in aged care; with war service; rural or outer suburban; migrant or refugee, ‘working class’, with dementia, depressed, …).

24. Where have sheds taken off? • Close to 500 across Australia, open or being developed www.mensshed.org • New Zealand (25) • Ireland (25) • England (6) • Canada (1) • Much interest in other European nations, with population ageing & GFC.

25. What can we learn from all this? • Wellbeing, learning and social inclusion are desirable to view and provide holistically, socially and enjoyably, including for men. • Much service provision remains silently gendered (men & women both matter). • Health & wellbeing data suggest it is critical to help older adults to learn to change, be socially included and stay well with age. • Learning is critically important for wellbeing & vice versa: formal learning is not accessible to or the answer for most men, particularly for most older men. • Men’s Sheds are worth a closer look.

26. Questions? Comments Men’s Sheds in Australia credit Ringo Starr & Eric Clapton, Concert for George