What is a Men’s Shed?

Men’s Sheds (or Sheds) are similar to garden sheds - a place to pursue practical interests at leisure, to practice skills and enjoy making and mending. The difference is that garden sheds and their activities are often solitary in nature while Men’s Sheds are the opposite. They’re about social connections and friendship building, sharing skills and knowledge, and of course a lot of laughter.

Sheds are whatever the members (or Shedders) want them to be. Although labelled sheds, they often aren’t sheds at all. They can be empty offices, portable cabins, warehouses or even garages. Some Sheds are purpose built workshops, but they rarely start out that way. Many don’t have premises at all in the beginning and instead form a group that meets regularly for the social connection, company and camaraderie until they can find somewhere to kit out with tools. Many Sheds get involved in community projects too - restoring village features, helping maintain parks and green spaces, and building things for schools, libraries and individuals in need.

Activities in Sheds vary greatly, but you can usually find woodworking, metalworking, repairing and restoring, electronics, model buildings or even car building in a typical Shed. Sheds typically attract older men, but many have younger members and women too. Whatever the activity, the essence of a Shed is not a building, but the connections and relationships between its members.

East Kilbride Men’s Shed is a community based, non-profit, non-commercial organisation accessible to all men, providing a safe, friendly and healing environment, where men are able to work on meaningful projects at their own pace in their own time and in the company of other men.

We provide a supportive environment for people to gather, volunteer, work, teach, learn and seek fellowship from other like-minded people.

We promote and stabilise the mental, physical, emotional and economic well-being of people in our community.

So if you have time on your hands, wish to undertake some project work for yourself, or for the Shed shop, or simply socialise with other like minded individuals, then come along to the East Kilbride Men’s Shed, where a warm welcome awaits.

If you want to find out more about Sheds, view this video from the Scottish Mens Shed Association (SMSA)