Whitby Area Sheds have received the formal funding agreement
from NYCC Stronger Communities for the new BayThorpe Shed. It is under a special programme focused on suicide prevention.
This is the result of timely action based on a prompt from a local resident and a notice shortly after about the new funding programme.
We can blame or credit Billy Connely who paid a visit, on camera, to the Dalbeattie Men’s Shed in Scotland. A RBH man saw the programme and posted on the village Facebook stream that The Bay should have a Shed. One of our Shedders saw it and it is this prompt that kicked the BayThorpe Shed off as a vision to be reached out for.
This Shed will be the last of the string down the coast from Staithes. It will, like the others, be totally volunteer led and inspired where those who come will provide the motivation. That’s the way of Men’s Sheds universally.
How is suicide prevented?
It is about keeping people away from the edge. Isolation and depression are two of the drivers but it is a hidden risk so often masked from others. Having others to regularly relate to, some purposeful, distracting activity and friendly banter is a good antidote to isolation at least. Belonging – Sheds become families of support, at least that is our emphasis.
Below is an extract from the agreement about beneficiaries and outcomes.
Beneficiaries: This Shed will engage people who feel isolated, depressed, threatened, who may have experienced directly or indirectly the symptoms or those with a foot in both camps for whom Sheds are preventative and restorative.
Outputs/Outcomes: The purpose of this Project is to alleviate isolation and to enhance wellbeing, combat bereavement, relationship breakdown, low esteem, anxiety and depression.
There will be training for appropriate Shedders in all our Sheds on suicide prevention and maybe “seeing the signs”.
And now we need to make the Shed known to those who live in and around Robin Hoods Bay and Fylingthorpe. Gathering a start up team. Designing a logo and a promotional postcard (similar to our others). Then into preparing the Shed in the already amazingly well fiited out Scout Hut.
The challenge will be to create a Shed that can be reconfigured to also serve visiting groups of Scouts. It is a combination of the challenges of Littlebeck and Eskmouth Scout Hall Sheds to be multi-purpose from time to time.
We look forward to becoming a presence one morning a week to start with, becoming two days in due course – possibly more.