Men Utd - meeting at our new Insomnia Cafe

 Blog by Elaine Dean, President

Around about 18 months ago we held a brainstorm meeting of the Northern Region Member and Community Council and in the group I was in, store manager Paul Robinson suggested we started up a group specifically for men to get together. We have been encouraged by the way men opened up about many concerns they have when we have held our Men's Voices event each November.
Men said they hadn't wanted to open up about things that worried them as they still felt they had to be 'strong' in their family and there was still an element of 'hunter gatherer'.

So Paul and I set up a group in Littleover Insomnia on alternate Wednesday afternoons 1.30-3.30 pm with a coffee or tea provided and biscuits. We also collected, along with the men who joined, packs of cards, dominoes and books to borrow plus magazines on subjects that interested them: football, railways, F1, cars, canals and much more. Paul named it Men Utd and we all liked that.

We have a nucleus now of around 6 men who attend and chat, maybe more but they don't all attend every week. We would like to expand this.

Morgon Smith, Team Leader at Littleover took over the general oversight of the group and made sure they were all ok. We are mindful that the men are all over 65 and about half are widowed so they are providing each other with company and discussions.

Paul was moved out to Belper store and it wasn't practical to have him attend.
Then we heard the new Insomnia at Shelton Lock was opening and Morgon was moving to be Team Leader there in the cafe.

Having listened to the members of Men Utd we decided to move the Men Utd group to Shelton Lock as they wanted to stay with Morgon and she wanted them to stay with her.

So here we are with this group now meeting fortnightly in Shelton Lock Insomnia. The next meeting is 22^nd January at 1.30 and all men are welcome to attend.

If there are younger men who would like to set up their own group we can accommodate that too in Shelton Lock, just let us know by emailing tanya.noon@centralcoop.co.uk who is the Member and Community Relations Officer for the Northern Region of Central Co-op.