Page 3570 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 12 September 2017
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I also had the opportunity last year during the campaign to visit the Majura men’s shed. They welcomed me with a lovely morning tea, which I very much appreciated. Again, a variety of activities were on offer. They make clear on their website—Ms Lawder mentioned the partnership with Alzheimer’s Australia ACT—that the Majura men’s shed has entered into a wooden toy enterprise for men with dementia, including young men with early onset dementia.
But you do not have to participate in making; you can just come along for a yarn and a cuppa if that is all that you are looking for. The Majura men’s shed describes itself on its website as follows:
Members of Men’s Sheds come from all walks of life—the bond that unites them is that they are men with time on their hands and would like something meaningful to do with that time.
Making things helps men—helps people, I think—beat depression. It gives many men meaning, particularly when they have lost something else that is meaningful in their life, whether that is a job as a result of retirement, forced or voluntary; whether that is losing a partner; or whether it is something else that has happened in their life. As others have said, women grieve face to face; men grieve shoulder to shoulder. Men’s sheds provide them with an opportunity to do that.
The ACT government assisted in building a men’s shed movement in the ACT some years ago with one-off funding from the community support and infrastructure grants program. It acknowledges the commitment and tireless work of volunteers engaged in organisations across our community, including those engaged with men’s sheds.
I would like to draw members’ attention to a number of grants programs. Obviously, I was not able to make it to another men’s shed get-together yesterday as I was in the Assembly. But I understand that people raised questions about the kinds of grants that men’s sheds could apply for. I would like to encourage members who are in contact with local men’s sheds to draw their attention to grants programs like the community support and infrastructure grants and the grants that support local community organisations to establish and enhance their digital capacity. We have funded that $125,000 round of grants.
Those grants will be coming up later in this financial year. We are also establishing a new round of grants, which was an election commitment. An amount of $200,000 over four years has been allocated to support greater social inclusion of people with disability in our community by providing grants to fund training, increased awareness and infrastructure modifications for community organisations. Men’s sheds might be interested in applying for these grants to improve access for people with disability to particular pieces of machinery or to improve their locations in general.
The ACT government is committed to supporting our community partners through the allocation of grants where both the government and community can work together to make an impact. Community grants create a platform to engage with all sections of
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