Partners and Sponsors
No organization stands alone in the service of its Members. We work with complimentary organizations who may also provide services to our target markets, which may fall outside our scope, capacity or mandate to deliver. We may receive data, intelligence, advice and hopefully wisdom from those who have gone before or who are walking a parallel path. Then there are those who provide direct financial assistance, or connections to the right people or whose words validate our organization and what we are trying to accomplish.
If we are doing it right there will be many worthy of our thanks, but a few will stand out. This is the place where we say so.
N.B. Click on a Logo to be taken to their web sites.
The folks who started it all in 2017
United Way BC's Healthy Aging Department recognized early on the importance of Men's Sheds to the health and well-being of older men, and began supporting the new Men's Shed Association of BC in 2018 with in-kind support. Subsequently, with the support of the BC Ministry of Health, financial support was provided for project grants to and the first provincial Men's Shed conference.
An anonymous philanthropic organization saw what was happening in B.C. and asked if, with their support, the success in BC could be repeated across the country. UWBC, in partnership with Help Age Canada and many individual Sheds and Shedders, then got to work to help develop the Shed network across Canada.
Funding for Shed Startup for sheds outside of BC.
In 2021, the Help Age Canada (HAC) Men’s Sheds Granting Team created programs to help Sheds startup in Provinces who had no Men's Sheds Provincial Associations. Recruiting, advising, funding are all part of their job. HAC advertises the funds, sets the rules for grants, manages the grant approval process, prepares written agreements and reporting follow-up.
For details see: https://helpagecanada.ca/mens-sheds/
We serve and connect Men’s Sheds across Canada.
The Canadian Men's Shed Association (CMSA) was conceived and built by Doug Mackie of Winnipeg Manitoba, the Grandfather of the first Men's Sheds in Canada. CMSA was incorporated in 2021. In 2022 at CMSA's first AGM Doug handed the reigns over to a newly elected Board of Directors who began the process of building a team to accelerate the number of sheds in Canada.
In 2022 the CMSA was renamed Men's Sheds Canada (MSC), with a new Mission, Vision and Values statement guiding our decisions thereafter.
MSC benefitted from initial funding to accelerate the growth of the number of sheds, and has seen significant success in that across the country, thanks in no small part to the trail blazed by the BC Sheds and their association.
The Men's Sheds movement in Ottawa all started with the Council on Aging of Ottawa.
In 2019, after looking to better serve the men in their target market, (i.e. getting them to come out to anything at all) the Council on Aging of Ottawa (COAO) learned of the Men's Shed movement. Late in 2019 COAO hosted a Men's Breakfast to recruit the core organizers of what would become Men's Shed Ottawa Centre (MSOC), which formed in early 2020.
COAO provided advice, connections, and moral support throughout the growth of three Men's Shed in Ottawa: Men's Shed Ottawa Centre (MSOC), Ottawa Makers Shed (OMS) and the Ambleside Men’s Shed (AMS).
Recently COAO are supporting Men's Shed Ontario by being the Registered Charity for funds to flow through to MSO.
The first source of funds for Men's Sheds Ontario
When Men's Sheds Ontario (MSO) was more an idea than reality OACAO became the Registered Charity through which funds were provided for MSO to get a jump start on aiding sheds in forming across the province.