Doug Mackie credits his daughter Lisa with the idea of starting Men’s Sheds in Canada. In June 2008, Lisa sat next to an Australian woman during a lunch break at a conference she attended in Saskatoon. The two women casually talked about the Men’s Sheds movement, which began in Australia and has hundreds of sheds and thousands of participants across that country.

Men’s Sheds are community-based spaces where men regularly meet to socialize and work on projects together. Participants choose the projects based on their interests — everything from woodworking and metalworking to cooking, IT or bicycle repairs.

The projects the men work on are often donated to schools or community organizations allowing the group to provide valuable community service, but the projects aren’t the main point of

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