Actis calls on fellow professionals to help fund Community Shed to tackle loneliness

A new community building aimed at enabling people to get involved in interesting pursuits while making friends is being built in Aberdeenshire – with help from insulation specialist Actis.

Work began long before Covid became part of day to day life – and its partial opening, possibly before the end of the year, will offer a somewhat different experience initially.

The campaign is now just £5,000 short of its target and organisers are hoping for a few more kind-hearted donors to boost their coffers – in exchange for getting their name in lights in the building and on the organisation’s website.

The timber frame and blockwork construction in Aboyne is part of the growing Men’s Shed movement – although this one will be open to both sexes.

Men's Sheds provide everything one would find in a conventional garden shed on a mega scale and are designed to encourage men and, in this case, women to get together over a shared passion for making things, with the aim of encouraging friendships and reducing loneliness.

They are usually more cuckoo like in their quest for a base – making their homes in buildings originally designed for other purposes. But in the case of this shed, in Aboyne, those behind the scheme opted for a new build, having been unable to find a nest in which to make their home. By the time this decision was taken, it had become clear that Aboyne and environs was in need not just of a Men’s Shed but for a community building open to all, but with the same aims and objects of the Men’s Shed movement.

Insulation specialist Actis is one of a number of companies offering their products or services free of charge to help reduce the cost of creating such an enterprise, as part of its policy of giving something back to the communities in which it operates, with the total budget for the project around the £320,000 mark.

The Shed – which will be known as the Aboyne and Mid-Deeside Community Shed and will be open to a range of community groups catering for women as well as men - will become one of more than 400 across the UK.

The 3,500 sq ft, two storey timber frame shed will, organisers hope, be partially open by the end of the year, subject to the ongoing Covid situation, with the remainder opening in 2021.

The downstairs workshop – the part which may be up and running in late December - will be run by the Men’s Shed (which will also be open to women interested in workshop activities), offering pursuits such as woodwork, metalwork, welding, car maintenance, small appliance repair, electronics projects and amateur radio.

The upstairs floor will be used for arts, craft, music and keep fit groups, with a social area providing facilities for small groups and general social interaction in line with one of the project’s principal aims - to combat loneliness and improve general wellbeing.

The Shed will also have a large kitchen for teaching cookery and kitchen skills as well as on site catering, and a small office.

Actis has donated nearly 150 sq m of insulating breather membrane BoostR Hybrid, more than 130 sq m of 50mm honeycomb insulation Hybris and an identical quantity of insulating vapour control layer HControl Hybrid towards the project.

Actis’ previous donations for community projects have included providing 100 sq m of Hybris to a Devon family affected by cerebral palsy and leukaemia who starred in BBC home improvement programme DIY SOS: The Big Build.

The insulation specialist also helped a family with a severely autistic son insulate a special sensory room in their Northumberland home.

Actis regional sales director for the North and Scotland, Jemma Harris, said: “It’s very rewarding to put something back into the communities in which we work. The Men’s Shed movement sounds such a great idea especially as part of a wider community based enterprise.

“Friends are so important. So these Sheds – which are in fact about as far from a traditional shed at the bottom of the garden as you can get – provide the kind of things you’d find in your own shed but on a massive scale, and with people to chat to and have a cup of tea with to boot. And it’s all free to users! What’s not to like?”

Rotary club member Stuart Robertson, one of the driving forces behind the shed’s creation, explained the thinking behind setting it up.

“A need was seen for somewhere that men could go to learn and carry out practical skills and help mitigate the rural social isolation, which is quite a concern here in mid-Deeside. The project has grown from just a Men’s Shed to a full community building. We have had just as much interest from women as men and the project now is fully inclusive and disability access compliant.

“The health board sees the project as a tool to address the increasing levels of loneliness and mental wellbeing issues that Covid has exacerbated."

Donations can be made via the donate button here.