At the moment Shed life is full of . . . . life. Many things that are aimed at meeting new or wider needs for people in our communities.
This is a repeated image but the picture is a thousand words. It represents dogged determination with smiles on the faces.
Jim is taking the selfie but also posed a question yesterday to Graham that turned out to be a huge coincidence.
27/09, 15:37] Jim Staithes: Just a quick question Graham …did the Norton shed get a load of tools etc from someone in Stockton who passed away ..someone went to the persons home to pick up the gifted tools etc ?
[27/09, 16:24] Graham Storer: Yes. Dealt with brother in law and cleared a lot because widow wanted it gone. Known to you?
[27/09, 16:30] Jim Staithes: Small world…was talking to a carer in home that my Dad is in and it was the man’s daughter whose tools were donated..so we talked about sheds ….as I say small world 😁
These are the best ways good news spreads. Better than even the next item up. Seriously!!
A Star Award for . . . . Norton Men’s Shed for women too . . . .
An award that says Graham. However Shedders in Norton and Whitby will (must) realise that they are the one’s who make the Shed work, keep it going and make forward progress on new fronts.
Rob put his finger on this yesterday when he said that Graham’s role was to keep coming up with new challenges . . . . even if 2 out of 10 succeeded that was making ground.
Ideas often come from experience (anyone’s) but achieving the result invplvers graft. We often present to the world that Sheds are huge fun and an adventure. They are, but they involve almost everyone pulling together.
Look at each of our Sheds and reflect on what has been done since you became a Shedder and look at where the Shed is going.
For Graham, it is the banter that makes his day and that is quite common (universal). Long may that medication continue to be prescribed.
Early Whitby district Shedders will remember the Awards we had in the early days. We were fresh air and unusual but we can continue to be award winning whether we get one or not!
Now a Walkthrough Video of Whitby Wednesday
Get a rough idea and we look forward to doing the same with BayThorpe and Staithes Sheds. They go into Whitby Doing Place’s Library of Things too so that those at home (like Col) can see a glimpse beyond their regular walls. Walkthroughs of places add real interest and can be a great tool for helping people.
Listen to our Aussie friend Len being interviewed on local community radio
Green-housing
Another busy day at Staithes shed today….where to begin …..firstly we had discussion and experiment on horizontal sheets versus vertical sheets ….as you can see from the photos we had Brian with his bucket of water with Ken and Phill holding the sheets in place and observing which way water runs …..imagine “Tomorrow’s World “meets “Blue Peter “meets “How “ …..in actual fact it was more like “Crackerjack”…anyhow you’ll be pleased to know we are going vertically ….
Also we now have a door ….our thanks go to RDW Specialist Joinery ( Ryan and Adam) who very kindly arrived today and installed the door free of charge ( needs a coat of wood stain please Liz ) …
Also , I think I mentioned that hopefully next Wednesday I’m going to Whitby shed to look at their ventilation system for ideas on how we can install one in our workshop …any fancy going we’ll meet at Staithes for 9:30….Some status news of potential significance for Norton Men’s Shed (the sister over the Moor).
To keep Norton Shedders and other readers informed, two applications for funding connected to Norton Men’s Shed and spin-offs from it have been submitted this week.
The first is under an NHS grant scheme called “Waiting Well” for secondary care patients needing a boost of some kind whilst they are waiting! Some creative distraction. For this we have taken the Whitby Town Shed project The Doing Place as the model. That has recently received a boost from an NHS Micro Grant under the mental health transformation programme. Essentially it is the “non woodwork Shed” activities of which there can be many. The clean stuff!
The second is to Suicide Prevention funding that Whitby District Sheds benefitted from twice for starting the BayThorpe Shed in 2019 and for starting the Whitby Doing Place in 2022. We have submitted a separate “mirror” project to this for Whitby too. It is another variant of the traditional Shed (Doing Place being the other so far) aimed at people who will better benefit from involvement in longer term project challenges that enable people to contribute both as small teams and as individuals than often spontaneous initiatives. Things that involve a bit more detailed exploration and planning and even offer a chance to do “homework”.
Why do these? Because there are many who need to “come together” for a dose of mate-ship. Not all have the same skills and interests. There needs to be variety within the same Shed-style framework.
It will not depend on existing Shedders but they will be a part of it in the way they individually wish. It will continue to be the same format of it being those who attend who in effect run it and are it! It opens the door to others as individuals and to others with common particular interests. We will still work with our professional “introducers” such as the NHS Social Prescribing Link Workers (and others including the Council in similar placement roles) with whom we now have almost 2 years experience of working with in Norton. Their understanding and support in nurturing relationships has been absolutely invaluable. It all comes down to people and trust.
Funding outcomes will be known in a few weeks but the challenge is premises because (unlike in Whitby Town) the premises we use in Norton (our beloved Portakabin) is not big enough for these new projects. Plus storage is needed. There are irons in the fire though. Universally the difficulty Sheds and other voluntary projects have is for premises to use.
We will now need to discuss registering Norton Men’s Shed with the Charity Commission because doing more will take us well into the registration requirement. It does not change what the Shed does, of course, but it protects community/society interests. This is something Whitby Sheds have experience of though to most Shedders it is transparent. BayThorpe is just doing it. They just want their Shed! We have matured to be able to cope with this bit of change.
What’s that to do with Whitby Sheds?
Well it is the same picture of forward direction.
Whitby Doing Place exists and this new term is seeing further advances subject to “stamina”. The same Suicide Prevention (hopefully) funded project has been submitted this week.
We do not suffer in Whitby (thanks to Scouts) the pressure on space that Norton has. Other than the universal parking problem evident in video. We also benefit from working together with the “Krampus Krew”. Greatly in terms of mutual morale.
We also need in Whitby to follow BayThorpe into Charity Commission registration and Norton is in tow too!
It has become very evident in quite recent months the willing collaboration there is and interest in each others Sheds in our little family of Sheds. The keen eyed may have noticed on the recently commissioned piece of art work a sign that says “welcome to the family”. That is set a little distanced from the Shed illustration and really means not just a particular Shed family but also a family of local Sheds in our cluster and even nationally and internationally What Whitby and Norton do is known about far away!! It encourages them and they encourage us.
We have just had contact again with WHISH’s founder Yvonne Harrison. They work with children and young people up to 18 with so-called hidden impairments. It was great to catch up with news and even to stimulate a few thoughts about how there might be some small bridges of co-activity emerging to help bi-directionally.
There is a project called Buddy Light under clarification that is not Shed but creams off a layer of the way Sheds work with social prescribing link workers and old Shed start-up friends NYC Living Well. Buddy Light would work at the interface region between professionals a the voluntary sector. Trusted people filling in some gaps with a helping hand.
Does Whitby Shed’s Rob exaggerate?
Rob has been in consultation mode and reports on reactions from those missing new films in cinemas!
A very positive response to the Shed Movie, it’s going to be a blockbuster!!. I emailed it to a few contacts last night , not local or potential Shedders, just people that know what I do.
Feedback =
“It looks like everyone is enjoying themselves”
“So this is what goes on at the Sheds” (from those who thought we only played dominoes or made bird boxes, not that there is anything wrong with that).
“Great, you should do tuition videos”
“Looks like fun”
And so it goes on. So much positiveness from from not too much effort. But a great little idea.
New one added :’I so wish we had one of these Sheds in our village” (Oundle, Northants)
Rob
It is another colour to the palette of what we are trying to do together. Does Rob exaggerate film critics!?