Tried to join a men's shed and was rejected   

Here you are Tib and Raphael. A perfect solution to your problems. I feel certain this is the way you should go.

I did a paper recently on Men's Sheds and it is true they offer men (as Ben says ) an opportunity to stay healthy and strong in every way.

Good luck...

i think they are a great idea for men,  esp,those who are widowed and no close family,    one way to kee p youself sociable   and out of mischief,   there is one here in south melbourne,   but no idea how many go,    i know hubby would never go,    no matter what,    he doesnt like meeting strangers,    

Surely if women are not allowed to attend men's sheds it is  violation of the Sex Discrimination Act.

I met a lady last week who, along with her sister, had just come from a morning tea at the local men's shed.

Her husband is a member though.

The benefits of Men’s Shed

Currently, there are limited studies evaluating the benefits of the Men’s Shed movement. Research undertaken by Hayes and Williamson (2006) accords with beyondblue’s anecdotal evidence, finding four major benefits of Men’s Sheds: decreasing social isolation, enhancing self esteem, increasing access to specific information about health, and providing a mediating structure between the ‘everyday world of men’ and the health care system.

Decreasing social isolation

beyondblue emphasises the importance of remaining socially connected throughout one’s life to help reduce one of the known risk factors for becoming depressed. A meaningful social network also protects against social isolation and loneliness in later life. Social isolation has been shown to predict an increase in morbidity and mortality (House, 2001), with the associated risks being comparable to cigarette smoking and other major biomedical and psychosocial risk factors (Warburton & Lui, 2007).

https://www.psychology.org.au/inpsych/2012/august/shann

I believe more funding for Men's sheds is long overdue. Many men could benefit  from the social interaction and it helps with their mental health.

Men,s Shed is a very good way to help people out but are they need to competent to be licence to do those work.

When you retire and also your licences expire so you don,t want to get caught by working without a valid licence.

Can someone correct me if I am wrong?

Thanks.

The biggest benefit of men's sheds is that there are no women and not all men can afford a shed for themselves. It also allows them to talk to other men which is a nice break from talking to the wife , which is usually about the next thing she wants to buy. 

I think it's a good initiative, $395000 is a very small cost, it certainly doesn't address the spending imbalance between men and women's issues health or otherwise. It also won't address the very high mens suicide rate. Typically when any of these issues are discussed some of the women crazies will bring up men's sheds as if they are answer to everything. I think anyone with a balanced view will recognise it's a very small amount of money and a great deal more money needs to be spent on men's issues and health to see any improvement. Though I expect to see some some ranting by the ever increasing number of man haters in response to my comment.

Lots of info at AMSA … the Australian Men’s Shed Association is the body representing more than 985 Men’s Sheds in Australia.

https://mensshed.org/

Re women: AMSA recognises that not all sheds are exclusively for men and that some sheds choose to call themselves ‘Community Sheds’ as they may be open to female members. The decision to have female members is entirely a local one. For the purposes of this document, the term ‘Men’s Shed’ is used to cover all member Sheds.

National Shed Development Programme (as mentioned in original post)

The programme is available to all Men’s Sheds in Australia regardless of their membership status with the Australian Men’s Shed Association. AMSA has administered the Australian Government NSDP on behalf of the Australian Government since 2010. To date over $4 million has been provided to assist new and existing Men’s Sheds in Australia.

Absolutely agree with everything you've said KIAH...a study was done recently at the University of Western Australia which targets the suicide rate among elderly men..

Men's sheds are very important and I support funding because many men suffer in silence...some lash out for no reason at all and others withdraw completely from society..

.

Older men with multiple health comorbidities have the highest risk for death by suicide, according to a study published in the December 2016 issue of Preventive Medicine.

A team of Australian researchers headed by Osvaldo P. Almeida, PhD, from the School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, conducted a cohort study of 38,170 community-dwelling men, aged 65 to 85 years, with a median age of 72 years, who were followed for up to 16 years.

To retrieve subjects' clinical and demographic data, the researchers used the Western Australian Data Linkage System, which brings together data for all health contacts of Western Australians with inpatient and outpatient mental health services, hospital morbidity data, and death registry. The outcomes of interest were attempted or completed suicides. Methods of self-harm included poison, hanging, firearms, and drowning. Explanatory variables included age as well as mental and medical disorders.

You  can read the rest here...

Sorry people..I think you've got to be a subscriber to read the rest..

This amount of money is peanuts especially when split among almost 1000 clubs. I have no issues with them being exclusively male either. Where else these days can men gather and be the men they are. As for women wanting to learn how to use tools, Burnings does just that for free on a weekly basis. Go there and ask for help. Women could even ask the local men's shed if they would give tuition elsewhere and for a small fee. If learning about tools is the real aim then this should not pose a problem. Leave the sheds alone girls. You have plenty of other options to meet people and better communication skills to do it

Yes, men’s shed is a wonderful idea, but most of them in my area are for ex tradies, unless your a toolmaker or chippy you are on the outer...Why don’t they have similar clubs for retired executives/ businesstypes/ managers/sales people/office types etc? We are mostly outgoing, gregarious types and to mix with like minded souls would be great....

Yes, that’s one option, thanks Reagan....Still would like a white collar type shed/office where we could maybe hatch plans to make a quid to fund the new type organisation, would certainly help keep us social and actively doing things many of us have done for years for other people...be successful....we could call it the “ways and means club” lol 

If there are no women allowed, who is organising things, like making the tea/coffee and bringing the bickies, I don't think this has been thought out very well.