About
About The Men's Workshop
The Men's Workshop was established by Andrew Hacker in 2004. After working for more than 10 years in community health and welfare organisations, Andrew was aware of the lack of specific services available to men to help them address the challenges they met in the course of their lives - family and relationship challenges, workplace and career situations, life transitions and personal crises. The Men's Workshop aims to fill that gap by providing services that are male friendly, supportive and accessible to men.
The Men's Workshop's mission is to improve the lives of men through support, understanding, leadership and innovation. Read on to find out how that mission is being accomplished.
Support
The Men's Workshop's primary business is the provision of counselling services, and other sources of information (tip sheets, articles, newsletters, books, etc.) that are accessible and inviting to men, available in a range of mediums (face to face, telephone, online, print and audio/visual) and aimed at practically addressing challenges and issues relevant to men's lives.
Understanding
More than just offering platitudes about 'being understanding', Andrew Hacker is actively engaged in primary and secondary research activities aimed at building on an already extensive knowledge base of the challenges faced by men, how those challenges impact on men, and how they can best be addressed or resolved. The knowledge gained from research is used to inform practice and procedures to deliver better quality outcomes to clients, and is passed on to professionals in other organisations via training, clinical supervision and consulting services.
Leadership
The Men's Workshop provides advocacy for men at a variety of levels, in a variety of ways. Through his involvement in peak bodies and other professional networks, Andrew has argued for greater support and assistance to men, as well as the need for services which are accessible to men. Tailored training programs are designed to raise awareness of the needs of men as well as to pass on specific knowledge to others.
Innovation
The Men's Workshop aims to use the most up-to-date methods and practices when working with men.
The use of new technologies will, over the months and years ahead, create even more opportunities for men to gain access to The Men's Workshop's services, programs and information. This website is envisaged as the hub of many new activities in service delivery which move well away from traditional counselling and support methods, such as text based, voice and video online counselling and group programs, wide dissemination of information via email newsletters, etc., as well as book sales and providing other self help resources.