Directories · Six countries
How to find a men's group near you (or start one)
Every major directory in one place, country by country. And the honest answer for when nothing turns up.
The fastest way to find a men's group near you is to check the national Men's Shed locator for your country, then the ManKind Project's group listings, then Meetup, then your local churches and senior centers, in that order. This page links every one of those directories directly, so you can work down the list in about twenty minutes.
One thing to know before you start: "men's group near me" is a search with thin results almost everywhere, not because groups don't exist, but because most of them don't advertise. A six-man group that meets in somebody's garage on Thursdays doesn't have a website. So check the directories below, and if they come up empty, don't take that as the final word. The men are out there. Sometimes the group just hasn't been started yet, and the last section of this page covers exactly what to do about that.
Start with Men's Sheds: the biggest network on earth
If you want hands-busy company rather than chairs in a row, Men's Sheds are the first place to look. A Shed is a community workshop where men build, repair, and tinker together: woodwork, metalwork, bikes, toys for the school fair, whatever the members decide. The talk happens over the workbench, which is exactly how most men prefer it.
The research backs the model. A scoping review of 31 studies on Men's Sheds and similar programs for older men linked taking part to a stronger sense of belonging, purpose, and self-reported wellbeing [1]. A 2021 qualitative study in BMC Public Health went a step further: Sheds reached men who were reluctant to walk into formal health services at all, and members reported picking up better health habits from the other men around the bench [2].
The movement started in Australia and now spans well over 2,000 Sheds worldwide. Every national association runs a free locator:
- Australia: the Australian Men's Shed Association locator, around 900 Sheds and the movement's birthplace. mensshed.org/find-a-shed
- United Kingdom: the UK Men's Sheds Association's Find a Shed map, roughly 900 Sheds and growing. menssheds.org.uk/find-a-shed
- Ireland: the Irish Men's Sheds Association Shed Finder, over 450 Sheds across the island, the densest network per head anywhere. menssheds.ie/shed-finder
- Canada: the Men's Sheds Canada shed list, over 140 Sheds across ten provinces and the fastest-growing region in the movement. mensshedscanada.ca/find-a-shed-in-canada
- New Zealand: the MENZSHED NZ "find a shed near you" map, more than 100 Sheds nationwide. menzshed.org.nz/our-location
- United States: the US Men's Shed Association's Find a Shed page. The US network is younger and thinner than the Commonwealth ones, so if your state comes up empty, the association also helps men start new Sheds. usmenssheds.org/find-a-shed
Sheds skew toward retired men, but most welcome any man who walks in. You don't need workshop skills. Sweeping the floor and putting the kettle on counts as participation, and nobody is keeping score.
Talk-based groups: the ManKind Project
If what you want is the sit-down kind of group, men talking straight about their actual lives, the largest organized network is the ManKind Project, a nonprofit running peer-facilitated men's groups in more than 20 countries since the 1980s.
- United States: MKP USA lists open groups by area on its men's groups page. mkpusa.org/mens-group
- Everywhere else: the international site links each country's regional organization, from the UK and Ireland to Australia, Canada, South Africa, and Germany. mankindproject.org
Fair warning so you're not surprised: MKP groups follow a structured format, and the organization is best known for its weekend training program, which some men love and some find too intense. The weekly groups themselves are free or low-cost. Visit one before you judge the whole thing either way.
Meetup and other local listings
Meetup hosts men's social and discussion groups in 19 countries, around 150 active groups at last count. Quality varies a lot more than the organized networks above, so read a group's history before you go: how long it's existed, how often it actually meets, and whether the same men keep coming back.
- Meetup's men's groups topic: meetup.com/topics/men. Search your city, then sort by activity, not by member count. A 12-man group that met last Tuesday beats a 400-member group that hasn't gathered since winter.
Beyond Meetup, three low-tech sources still outperform the internet in most towns: the corkboard at your public library, the parks and recreation program guide, and your local paper's community calendar. Groups run by and for men over 50 are especially likely to live in those places and nowhere online.
Church men's groups: the quiet giant
More men sit in a men's group through a church than through every other network on this page combined. Nearly every congregation of any size runs something: a Saturday morning men's breakfast, a weekday Bible study, a service crew that fixes widows' porches. The format ranges from study-heavy to mostly bacon and conversation, so ask what a typical meeting looks like before you commit.
There's no single global directory, but finding one takes two phone calls:
- Call the church office of any congregation near you, yours or not, and ask "do you have a men's group, and when does it meet?" Most welcome men from outside the congregation, especially for the breakfast-format groups.
- Check the bulletin or website of the two or three largest churches in town. Men's ministries usually publish their schedule there, and many run open events specifically designed for first-timers.
If you're a man of faith who'd rather build than join, several ministries publish free playbooks for starting a group inside your own congregation, and our own step-by-step guide works just as well with a chapter of scripture on the table.
Senior centers and options for men over 60
If you're past 60, three more doors are worth knocking on, and all three are free:
- United States: the Eldercare Locator, run by the federal Administration for Community Living, connects you to your local Area Agency on Aging, which knows every senior center, men's coffee hour, and veterans' breakfast in your county. eldercare.acl.gov or 1-800-677-1116.
- United Kingdom: Age UK's local services directory lists social groups and activities by postcode, including men-only sessions at many local branches. ageuk.org.uk/services/in-your-area
- UK and beyond: u3a (University of the Third Age) runs thousands of interest groups for people no longer in full-time work, from woodworking to walking to military history. Not men-only, but heavily attended by men with time on their hands and standards about how they spend it. u3a.org.uk
Also ask any senior center about a ROMEO group: Retired Old Men Eating Out. They're informal lunch crews, they exist in far more towns than the internet knows about, and the name tells you everything about the spirit of the thing. We cover this whole landscape in more depth in our guide to men's groups for retirees.
How to size up a group before you commit
Whatever you find, judge it on one visit with five quick checks:
- Did anyone learn your name? A good group notices a new man inside ten minutes.
- Does it meet on a fixed schedule? Same day, same time, same place is the single best predictor a group will still exist next year.
- Do men your age attend? You don't need contemporaries, but you shouldn't be the only man within twenty years of your own age.
- Is there a way to take part without performing? The best groups let a new man sit quiet for a few visits while he gets the measure of the room.
- Did you leave wanting to go back? Trust that instinct over any feature on this list.
Give a promising group three visits before you decide. The first visit you're a stranger; by the third you'll know whether these are men you could count on.
Nothing nearby? Then you're the founder
If you've worked through every directory above and come up empty, here's the reframe that matters: that's not a dead end, that's an open seat at the head of the table. Every group in every locator on this page started the same way, with one man deciding the thing should exist and inviting a few others. No license, no budget, no charter. One sentence of purpose and four to six personal invitations.
And you're not starting from scratch. Our homepage walks you through how to build a men's group, step by step: how to write the one-sentence purpose, who to invite and exactly what to say, how to run a simple 90-minute first meeting, and how to keep the thing alive for years. When your group is up and running, the companion guide on keeping a men's group going year after year covers the long haul, and the first meeting agenda gives you the opening night minute by minute.
Most men are one concrete invitation away from saying yes. Somebody in your town has to be the one who makes it. It might as well be you.
Common questions
Are men's groups free to join?
Most are. Men's Sheds typically charge modest annual dues to cover the workshop (often the price of a tank of gas). Church groups and ROMEO lunches are free beyond your own breakfast. Some organized networks charge for training weekends; the weekly groups themselves usually aren't the revenue source. Be wary of any group whose first conversation is about a membership tier.
What if I'm not a "talk about feelings" kind of man?
Then start with a Shed or a project-based group. The research on Men's Sheds is clear that the workbench format works precisely because nobody is required to talk about anything [2]. The conversation finds its own level, and it's deeper than you'd expect.
How long does it take to feel like I belong?
Plan on a month or two of regular attendance. Belonging follows familiarity, and familiarity follows repetition. The men who quit after one awkward visit never find out the second month is when it pays off.
Ready to start your own group?
The First Meeting Kit is a free printable PDF with the exact invitation scripts, a minute-by-minute first meeting plan, and 20 questions that get men talking.
Get the free kitSources
- Milligan, C., Neary, D., Payne, S., et al. (2015). Older men and social activity: A scoping review of Men's Sheds and other gendered interventions. Ageing & Society, 36(5), 895-923. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0144686x14001524
- Kelly, D., Steiner, A., Mason, H., et al. (2021). Men's Sheds as an alternative healthcare route? A qualitative study of the impact of Men's Sheds on user's health improvement behaviours. BMC Public Health, 21, 553. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10585-3