Inspired by Men in Sheds, the group run out of the sunlight centre to battle mental health with activities like woodworking, gardening and music production.
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00:00Men in Sheds has been running for nearly 10 years, and now they've decided to give in to the high demand and start up Women in Sheds.
00:07Currently, I'm involved in recruiting people to it by them coming in and having a chat,
00:13finding out what they'd like to do, their goals, their aims, and find out their interests.
00:18And from there, we will be able to put a programme together that they'll enjoy.
00:23It's really important because you could be lonely in a crowded room.
00:28And I think the stigma attached to loneliness can be broken by bringing people together,
00:34just in a nice social space, a nice warming cup of coffee,
00:38chatting and nattering like women love to do.
00:41And it breaks that barrier of I'm alone.
00:47After the initial success of Medway Men in Sheds, Women in Sheds has now been up and running for about four weeks.
00:53Meeting here at the Sunlight Centre, it is a community and member-led group where they get together to tackle loneliness.
01:00It's kind of like we're a new territory, and it's being run by women.
01:06And they're devising and evolving from the ground up.
01:10You know, women say, why can't we get involved and do what you're doing?
01:14Why can't we join your group?
01:16And unfortunately, it's funded for men.
01:20We can use what we've got to share with this new Medway Women in Sheds group,
01:26and it will make life so much easier for them to get going.
01:30Not only do they help each other mentally, but physically too,
01:33with specialists in the centre checking up on everyone's wellbeing.
01:36It's a health project.
01:39So whilst you're creating something, you might talk about what your health problems are.
01:43And it might be women's health, it might be menopause during menopause week,
01:49and just, you know, you might talk about a certain problem that you've got.
01:53Somebody else might think, ah, yeah, I might have that too.
01:56Maybe I ought to get that checked out.
01:58As a society, we're becoming more disconnected.
02:01So when we're working, women are very much focused, well, women and men,
02:07are very much focused on their working life,
02:09might not get to know their neighbours as well as they used to.
02:12And then when they have children, they're suddenly at home and they're lonely
02:17because they're missing that contact with their colleagues
02:19and day-to-day talking with other people.
02:22The majority of our people are out of work or retired.
02:26They've got a lot of opportunities here.
02:28We've got music, we've got sheds, we've got gardens.
02:32They can be creative.
02:34We've got painting, got upcycling.
02:36Whatever they want to do as a group, we will enable.
02:40Kai Wei for Game TV.