The world premiere of A Barn Playa play that explores animal rights and family separationtakes place on March 18 and the show will run until April 4 in New York City. A Barn Play shares the story of seven farm animals who are rehearsing for their own play. The rehearsal is disrupted when a cow and pig have to explain to a sheep that their little ones, whove been taken away by a farmer, are not coming back. The hour-and-a-half long play sheds light on the animal farming industrys practices of taking away animals babies while providing a parallel look at the countrys current immigration issue involving human children being separated from their parents. I always look for something that Id never seen before, and A Barn Play certainly fits that description, Artistic Director James Bosley said. But aside from its uniqueness, I was drawn to the subversive way it approaches the issues of animal rights, and of family separation which, for our Northern Manhattan community, is an extremely urgent concern. A Barn Play is produced by the UP Theater Company and takes place at the Good Shepherd/Inwood Academy Space in the Inwood neighborhood of NYC.

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NYC Vegan Play Sheds Light on the Cruelty of Family Separation For Animals and Humans - VegNews

Crude oil remained stuck in the lower circuit this morning, shedding as much as 30 per cent in the first two hours of trading on the Multi-Commodity Exchange. The meltdown in crude had a trickle-down effect on gold, silver and base metals.

The fall was triggered by the crash in global crude following the price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Brent fell to $31 a barrel in the morning, down over 30 per cent from Fridays close after Russia backtracked from the Opec production deal and instead increased production further to make US shale oil production unviable.

This led to a price war with Saudi Arabia also raising production and lowering the price, causing panic across markets and asset classes, and a rush to meet losses in derivatives of all assets including equities, debt, currency and commodities. The Indian commodity derivatives market is price taker in major commodities like precious metals and energy, apart from base metals.

As a result many players who had gone long on crude oil had to pay additional margins beyond the 20 per cent they had paid earlier, under MCX's dynamic margin structure. Globally too, there was a sell-off across the board to meet losses in crude oil and equities.

Said Ajay Kedia, Kedia Advisory, Mumbai: Today is a Black Day for the financial market as we have seen a horrific fall in equities, commodities, and currencies after Crude oil plunged more than 25 per cent in one of the biggest one-day falls since the Gulf War of the early 1990s. Investors are literally bracing for a race to the bottom, as an all-out Opec price war erupts between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

With an extra oil output of up to 3.1 million barrel per day pouring into a slowing global economy that is now also having to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, Kedia said, It will be rough sledding for the oil sector going forward. The price crash came at a difficult time for US shale, and has posed a conundrum for President Donald Trump. Lower oil prices are an important part of his pitch to voters, and he has frequently calling on Opec to bring them down. But a prolonged price fall could spell economic trouble for energy-producing states such as Texas and North Dakota.

In MCX futures, crude oil was down 29 per cent in the afternoon, recovering over 4 per cent from the day's low. All metals were down with aluminium shedding 1.5 per cent, Nickel 3.8 per cent and copper and zinc 2.5 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. Agro commodities were also were impacted.

Anuj Gupta, Deputy Vice president-Research, Angel Broking said, Today's fall in crude oil prices may also impact other commodities like metals and farm commodities. All commodity segments corrected drastically. In general, crude is the primary driver for global growth. Fall in crude oil prices at a time when several countries are struggling to take on the spread of the coronavirus has created an emergency situation and fear of global economic growth slowdown.

See the original post here:
Black Monday for commodities across the board as crude sheds 31% - Business Standard

People in consensually non-monogamous relationships tend be more willing to take risks, have less aversion to germs, and exhibit a greater interest in short-term mating compared to those in monogamous relationships, according to new research published in Frontiers in Psychology. The findings may help explain why consensual non-monogamy is often the target of moral condemnation.

Consensual non-monogamy (CNM) is an increasingly popular romantic relationship practice in societies historically predominated by monogamy. CNM refers to any romantic relationship where people form consensually non-exclusive romantic or sexual partnerships, said lead researcher Justin K. Mogilski of the University of South Carolina Salkehatchie.

Research documents that those who pursue CNM are the target of significantly greater moral condemnation than those in monogamous relationships. However, peoples perceptions of CNM tend to be discordant with its actual practices and outcomes. For example, CNM individuals are presumed to have worse sexual health than monogamous individuals yet report similar or better sexual health practices compared to those in monogamous relationships.

They also report unique benefits from forming multiple intimate relationships such as diversified need fulfillment, more frequent social opportunities, and more fluid sexual expression. And these benefits are associated with relatively greater relationship satisfaction, particularly when an individuals personality is matched to their relationship structure (e.g., when someone with greater interest in casual sex pursues CNM), Mogilski told PsyPost.

We became interested in this topic to address why these negative beliefs about CNM exist despite evidence to the contrary. In our study, my colleagues and I tested a novel explanation for why moral stigma against CNM exists: individuals who habitually form multiple romantic or sexual partnerships may be predisposed to engage in riskier, more competitive behaviors that strain social cooperation.

People may therefore condemn these relationships because they think doing so prevents personal and public health risks. That is, if people are discouraged from forming multiple concurrent romantic relationships, this may prevent violent competition for romantic partners, domestic abuse due to infidelity, partner abandonment, child neglect, and disease transmission, Mogilski said.

The researchers surveyed 783 individuals who were currently in a romantic relationship of some type. Most of the participants were in a monogamous relationship, but 149 were in a multi-partnerrelationship and 96 were in an open relationship. After filling out a demographic questionnaire, the participants completed assessments of life history, pubertal development, attitudes towards uncommitted sex, perceived vulnerability to disease, and risk-taking.

In our study, we collected data that showed that people within CNM relationships tend to be willing to take more social and ethical risks, are less averse to germs, and are more interested in short-term romantic relationships (and less interested in long-term, committed relationships) than those in monogamous relationships, Mogilski told PsyPost.

These predispositions are known as a fast life history strategy. According to life history theory, early life experiences can shape an individuals behavior toward relationships and life in general. Those faced with unpredictable childhoods develop a fast life strategy that emphasizes insecure attachments, immediate gratification, and risky behaviors. Those with a more stable childhood, on the other hand, develop a slow life strategy that emphasizes long-term goals, greater investments, and reduced aggression.

This presents a paradox: those who seek out CNM relationships appear to be predisposed to take risks, pursue short-lived romantic relationships, and disregard disease. Yet, in practice, they avoid this, Mogilski explained.

To resolve this paradox, we propose a model in our paper explaining how modern CNM communities regulate negative outcomes within multi-partner relationships. Most modern CNM communities have well-developed guidelines for pursuing non-exclusive relationships safely and ethically. These guidelines, including effective birth control, open communication and honesty, and consent-seeking, may help manage and diminish the risks common to competitive, promiscuous mating environments.

In other words CNMs culture of compassionate sexual ethics may help risk-prone people pursue multi-partner mating in a manner that doesnt endanger other peoples physical or mental health, Mogilski said.

The researchers emphasized that the findings should not be mistaken as a justification of the condemnation of consensual non-monogamy. In fact, they hope the research will help to reduce the moral stigma surrounding the topic.

Our data highlight how those with a proclivity toward CNM may possess personality traits that predispose them to take risks, pursue multi-partner mating, and disregard pathogens. CNM practices may therefore not foster these traits, but rather provide an environment where people can ethically express them, Mogilski said.

If this is true, CNM may improve, rather than threaten, cooperation and well-being within certain communities a feature that should be valued by those who fear how public acceptance of CNM might affect social order or the stability of romantic relationships.

But it can also be practiced in a way that produces social disharmony. The researchers hope that future research will uncover the strategies that CNM practitioners use to manage multi-partner relationships, and how those strategies are related to personal and relationship outcomes.

Though there are plenty of popular resources for people who wish to ethically practice multi-partner mating, there is currently no comprehensive, scientific study of these practices. It would strengthen our hypothesis to show that those who pursue multi-partner mating in a relatively more ethical way tend to experience more positive relationship outcomes from doing so. Stay tuned this research is currently underway, Mogilski said.

The study, Life History and Multi-Partner Mating: A Novel Explanation for Moral Stigma Against Consensual Non-monogamy, was authored by Justin K. Mogilski, Virginia E. Mitchell, Simon D. Reeve, Sarah H. Donaldson, Sylis C. A. Nicolas and Lisa L. M. Welling.

See the original post here:
Study sheds light on the roots of moral stigma against consensual non-monogamy - PsyPost

Norwegianis cancelling about 3,000 flights until mid-June following a decline in demand from the coronavirus outbreak.

That is about 15pc of the airline's total capacity for this period.

The company has also put several other measures in place, including temporary layoffs of a "significant share of its workforce".

Affected customers will be informed about cancellations.

Chief executiveJacob Schram said:Unfortunately, cancellations will affect a significant share of our colleagues at Norwegian. We have initiated formal consultations with our unions regarding temporary layoffs for flying crew members as well as employees on the ground and in the offices."

He added:This is a critical time for the aviation industry, including us at Norwegian. We encourage the authorities to immediately implement measures to imminently reduce the financial burden on the airlines in order to protect crucial infrastructure and jobs.

The Telegraph reported on Sunday that Arrowstreet Capital, a $106bn (81bn) hedge fund launched by UK-born Harvard professor John Campbell, is among investors betting Norwegian will be thenext airline to fail.

Several airlines have slashed capacity to and from Italy in the wake of the nationwide lockdown announced on Monday.

Ryanair will suspend all flights until April 8, while British Airways has also stopped flying to Italy.

EasyJet continues to operate a small number of flights to the country.

Continued here:
Norwegian cancels 3,000 flights and sheds staff - The Telegraph

Maria Dizzia as Heidi.Photo by Joan Marcus.

What the Constitution Means to Me is partly a lesson in the glories of the 14th Amendment and partly the personal story of domestic abuse against women by the men in playwright Heidi Schrecks family. The victims were her female relativesstarting with her great-great grandmother.

Schreck created her stage personaa lively, mostly solo performanceoff Broadway and continued it in the highly successful six-month Broadway run last year. Maria Dizzia recreates Heidi successfully in the production now on stage at the Broadway Playhouse, presented by Broadway in Chicago. Its a heartfelt and informative show, with moments of laughter and sorrow as Schreck/Dizzia relives her years as a teenaged debater. The story moves briskly, hopping back and forth from landscape to minutiae at a madcap pace. Oliver Butler, who directed the earlier iterations, directs the traveling production.

Heidi tells her personal story in fragments throughout the evening. Her great-great grandfather bought her great-great grandmother from a catalog, and brought her here from Germany to become his wife. She was 19, suffered spousal abuse, and by 36, she died from melancholy. Heidi feels some survivors guilt about this. And she has had to come to terms with the fact that the Constitution has failed to protect her family members from intimate partner violence over the decades.

Heidi performs both as her present-day self and as 15-year-old Heidi as she views Constitutional issues such as immigration, reproductive rights and what it means to be an American citizen. Mike Iveson plays the WWII veteran/Legion member moderating the debate and becomes himself later in the play, with comments on sexuality and masculinity. A teenaged debater appears in later scenes, putting a youthful spin on todays issues. Jocelyn Shek, who performed on opening night, alternates with Rosdely Ciprian, a veteran of the Broadway run.

Maria Dizzia and Mike Iveson, foreground. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Heidi tells how she came to love the Constitution and especially the Ninth Amendment, as a teenager in Wenatchee, Washington. She entered the local American Legion debate tournament on the subject of What the Constitution Means to Me. (Her speech was titled Casting Spells: The Crucible of the Constitution.) Cash prizes were involved and as she progressed through more Legion competitions, she was able to earn enough money to pay her tuition and graduate from a state university.

During the course of her debate experience, she decided that the Ninth Amendment is her favorite because it seems open to enabling rights for everyone that may not be enumerated in the Constitution or Bill of Rights. It was in that elasticity, she points out, that in 1965 Justice William O. Douglas found the penumbra that defines a right of privacy not otherwise defined in the Constitution. That was central to Douglas majority opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut, providing that the state could not prohibit the use of birth control, and then later in Justice Harry Blackmuns 1973 majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, guaranteeing abortion rights.

Part of the debate structure required each speaker to describe an amendment drawn randomly. Heidi draws the 14th Amendment, Section 1, the supremely important post-Civil War amendment that guarantees citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. It contains the life, liberty or property, due process of law and equal protection clauses that have been crucial in so many civil liberties cases. Heidi goes well beyond her limited debaters time to tell us how important this amendment has been for the last 150 years. Even though it took 50 more years to get women the right to vote and another 50 to ensure voting rights for Blacks.

Jocelyn Shek and Maria Dizzia. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Ultimately she says that as much as she loves the Constitution, it was always meant only to protect the interests of a small number of rich, white property ownersall men, like the U.S. Supreme Court until Sandra Day OConnor was appointed in 1981.

The play acknowledges that although our Constitution is deeply flawed and difficult to amend, it is still an essential element of our democracy. Playwright Schreck, granting solid attention to the 14th Amendment as well as the Ninth, unfortunately ignores the First Amendment, which, in its protections for freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly, is a bulwark against repression.

At the end of the play, pocket Constitutions are handed to every audience member. As an ACLU member for more than 50 years, I was proud to see that the ACLU provided them. They include the ACLUs useful bust-card advice: What to do if youre stopped by police.

Rachel Haucks set design recreates an American Legion hall, walls lined with framed photos of white mendozens of white men. Lighting is by Jen Schriever and sound design by Sinan Refik Zafar. Costume design is by Michael Krass.

Heidi Schrecks other writing includes Grand Concourse (Steppenwolf, 2015) and episodes of TV series including Nurse Jackie and Billions.

What the Constitution Means to Me continues at the Broadway Playhouse, 175 E. Chestnut St., through April 12. Tickets are $30-$105 for performances six days a week with matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Monday is dark. Running time is 110 minutes with no intermission.

Related

Link:
Review: What the Constitution Means to Me Sheds Light on the Penumbra of Law and the Lives of Women - thirdcoastreview.com

Photo Credit: Unsplash/Free To Use Sounds

The spread of Coronavirus is causing disruptions to so many areas of our lives, including the church. Not only has the virus caused many churches to reconsider when and how they will hold worship gatherings; it has caused many churches to revisit whether or not they will share the Lords Supper.

Far beyond the outbreak of Covid-19, this is something that deserves even more consideration among the people of Christ today.

The following content is a transcription of a video included within this article, so punctuation may be imperfect, as it is a spoken commentary.

Im kind of a germaphobe, anyway. I was in a difficult situation a couple weeks ago in a movie theater the other day when I dropped my bottle of Purell on the floor, and had to reach around on a movie theater floor and find it, and then the question was: what do you do to disinfect a container of Purell?

So, I already sort of have this problem, and then you add to it, the very real alarm that we have going on right now with Coronavirus. Especially with people who are traveling around the world, and as the Coronavirus starts to come into the United States, there have been people who have died already.

And we also have, beyond that, just the sense of public anxiety; and could be even panic, about Coronavirus and related diseases. We had swine flu several years ago, we had the Ebola concern as well, Avian flu, so...these sorts of potential pandemics come up every once in a while.

Photo Credit: GettyImages/Pic2Frames

One of the things that I was thinking aboutin addition to all of the issues of preparing to care for people may come down with Coronavirus and preparing for the potentiality of not having, say, big events, and all of the contingencies that government and non-governmental organizations are going to have to think through iscommunion.

Someone sent me, knowing my concerns about Lords supper, sent to me a tweet that someone had put up earlier this week from, I believe, a Catholic man who was talking about how dangerous it is to be serving communion with a common cup during a time of potential Coronavirus. And someone else had responded and said, well you oughta then become a Protestant because we have the little individualized cups and the little individualized crackers.

And so it really caused me to think about something thats been a concern of mine for a long time. And so, I actually would agree with churches that say were not going to do common cup right now in a time of potential epidemic. But, I think that weve lost something when weve lost the practice of the common cup and the Lords table as a meal in my own evangelical community.

Because I think there are reasons why we do it this way (individualized) that I dont think are good. Now Im not saying that this renders the Lords supper, the way that most of us do it, inoperative. Not at all. The Lords supper is the Lords supper. I just think there are some assumptions behind the very individualized way we do the Lords supper that loses some of what Jesus communicates to us inside the Lords supper: the tearing of the bread, the drinking of the common cup.

Photo Credit: Unsplash/James Coleman

When the apostle Paul talks about our gathering together around the table, it is a sign of the unity that Jesus is establishing, and the fact that Jesus himself is feeding us with his own body and his own blood.

I think that right now, there are all sorts of things that churches may do when it comes to Coronavirus. And it may reach the point where some churches arent able to have a weekly gathering for a while.

But longer-term than that, I think that we need to have a conversation about what does it mean for us to be part of one body: one loaf, one cup? And I think one of the reasons that some of us dont even think about those ancient practices, is not because were concerned about epidemics, but because we just say thats gross to drink after somebody else.

That actually is something that the New Testament takes head-on and says: youre not drinking after somebody else. Youre part of one body. Head, body, in Christ.

And thats worth thinking about when were past the time of sickness.

Russell Moore is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the moral and public policy agency of the nations largest Protestant denomination. Dr. Moore is the author of several books, including Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospeland The Storm-Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home. A native Mississippian, he and his wife Maria are the parents of five sons.

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How Coronavirus Sheds Light on Communion and the Body of Christ - Crosswalk.com

Sheriff's Department SWAT officers move in to apprehend a subject held up in the backyard of a home in the 9500 block of Bending Crest on Feb. 9, 2020.

Sheriff's Department SWAT officers move in to apprehend a subject held up in the backyard of a home in the 9500 block of Bending Crest on Feb. 9, 2020.

Photo: Tom Reel, San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer

Sheriff's Department SWAT officers move in to apprehend a subject held up in the backyard of a home in the 9500 block of Bending Crest on Feb. 9, 2020.

Sheriff's Department SWAT officers move in to apprehend a subject held up in the backyard of a home in the 9500 block of Bending Crest on Feb. 9, 2020.

Standoff with man accused of squatting in shed ends

A man who was squatting in a Northeast Side backyard storage shed allegedly threatened to shoot deputies who were trying to speak with him Monday afternoon.

At about 4 p.m., Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said deputies were dispatched to the home in the 5900 block of Bending Crest to speak with Jonathan Gutierrez, 28.

Salazar said the homeowner and Gutierrez knew each other, but could not immediately define their relationship.

Gutierrez yelled at the deputies and made threats using foul language as he told them not to approach the shed, investigators said.

The suspect made some threats toward officers. ... He was armed, he was going to come out shooting, Salazar said.

Deputies shut the roads surrounding the home and surrounded the shed during the standoff.

After an hour and a half of negotiations, Gutierrez came out of the shed and complied when a SWAT team ordered him to the ground, deputies said.

Salazar said investigators did not know how long the man had been squatting in the shed.

Gutierrez was to be booked into the Bexar County Jail on a warrant for possession of a controlled substance.

Deputies said Gutierrez has an extensive criminal history that includes evading arrest.

He will most likely face charges for terrorist threats made against the deputies, as well as other charges should investigators find a weapon in the shed, Salazar said.

Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA

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Standoff with man accused of squatting in shed ends - mySA

One of the Coasts most notable eateries celebrated the reopening of some popular offerings Saturday.

The Shed Barbecue and Blues Joint marked the opening of the saloon and seasonal opening of the Crawfish Shack Out Back for customers.

Patrons have the chance to eat hand-selected mudbugs and listen to live music in an outdoor setting this crawfish season or hang out in a wild-west style saloon with a wide selection of drinks.

The Shed Owner Brad Orrison says it is exciting to see more growth at the facility. Well weve been successful at doing beer, barbecue, and blues, and its a natural step for us to do crawfish and celebrate crawfish season. Also were frying catfish and of course all the barbecue staples, but now weve added some high-end liquors and hand-selected bourbons and a bigger playground!

Crawfish are available at the Shed every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. until supplies last. You can also reserve them over the phone.

Originally posted here:
New offerings at The Shed BBQ and Blues Joint - WXXV News 25

As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds one of its unique dynamics is the surge of new medical studies being rushed into print because of the extenuating circumstances of a global pandemic. To be crystal clear, these are studies produced using expert, scientific methodologies and conducted by credentialed epidemiologists and clinicians. But many have relatively small sample sizes and theyre being performed many in China under crisis conditions. So they dont necessarily prove things even in the limited way that larger, more organized studies can. But theyre giving us key information.

Let me point your attention to a few of them.

Because Im not an expert on these matters in any way, I will keep my descriptions very general. If you want more information you can review the studies. In most cases, if youre not a specialist, its easiest just to read the abstract.

*** One of the big questions about COVID-19 is its effect on children. The evidence is overwhelming that its impact on children is dramatically less than it is for adults, especially for elderly people. (Heres a Times story on the general issue.) In general, young, healthy people do better with most diseases than older people. But the apparent disparity goes way beyond the general robustness of youth and appears to extend even to the very, very young who are often more vulnerable to diseases like the flu.

The question has been: do children actually contract the disease at a much lower rate or are they infected just as much or at similar rates to others but consistently present with much milder or even subclinical versions of the disease?

The difference may not have a major impact on the threat to children (here talking about under 20) but it could make a major difference in the degree to which children are a vector for the spread of the disease. This study published earlier this week, based on surveillance from Shenzhen, China suggests that children are just as much at risk of contracting the disease as adults. They are just far less likely to get severe cases. Key sentence from the abstract. We further show that children are at similar risk of infection as the general population, though less likely to have severe symptoms; hence should be considered in analyses of transmission and control.

Again, small sample sizes, rushed to print. None of these individual studies should be treated as definitive. But they are important pieces of the puzzle.

*** Another critical question is how deadly the disease is. People really want to know the answer to this question, for obvious reasons. As I noted on Wednesday there was a lot of bad reporting on the WHOs announcement of a 3.4% death rate from COVID-19.

This number was not presented as an estimate of someones chance of dying as a result of COVID-19. We dont know that answer yet and probably wont in any definitive way for some time. It was the current percentage of identified fatalities per identified cases. That is a more specific and technical datapoint, highly influenced by the amount of testing.

On Wednesday a new study was published based on the epidemic in Hubei from January 1st through February 11th. This study takes the official data and does additional modeling to try to get a handle on underreporting, transmission rates, etc. They came up with a 1.6% fatality rate. This was from an intense period of the epidemic in China. Fatality rates have been higher in Hubei than in the rest of China. Knowledgable experts have suggested we shouldnt place too much focus on the 1.6% fatality rate there are too many uncertain variables. What is more important is the age breakdown, which really drives home the threat to older people. See this chart.

As you can see, very low rates of mortality (relatively speaking for the young) up to very high ones for people over 80 and a steady slope from 1% on up over age 50. We have a great deal of evidence that for the great majority of people who are young or relatively young and in good health COVID-19 is a manageable disease. But for the elderly and those in fragile health it is very dangerous and deadly in a significant percentage of cases.

*** Another issue is smoking. Its not a huge surprise that smoking might be a contributing factor to severity in a respiratory illness. But theres significant evidence that smoking is significantly associated with COVID-19 progressing toward severe or critical disease. See this study from February 28th. There is also this study from February 26th which focuses on a gene expression found in smokers which is associated with COVID-19 a receptor of virus. These findings may suggest that smokers are also more susceptible to infection. Key quote from the abstract: In conclusion, our findings may indicate that smokers, especially former smokers, and people over 60 have higher risk and are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Note particularly here the may indicate phrasing. This second study is more tentatively connected to evidence from the course of disease in specific patients and should be treated as suggestive rather than dispositive.

I was struck in this case that this may apply even more to former smokers than current ones. But again, if youre wondering about that all I can suggest is reading the study.

Read more:
New Studies Shed Light on Impact and Vulnerability to COVID-19 - TPM

Posted March 07, 2020 09:37:44

Social isolation is a growing problem in Australia and is even more difficult to overcome when you do not have spare money for outings or activities.

A group of women in Adelaide's north hope they have found a solution, after noticing many women sitting alone in shopping malls and having nowhere to get together.

Raelene Wlochowicz retired from the youth justice system last year and wanted to learn new skills and make new friends, but realised the only option in the area was a men's shed.

Men's sheds are community-based, non-profit, non-commercial organisations that provide a safe and friendly space for men to work on projects.

The Australian Men's Shed Association said a major objective of the sheds is to advance the well-being and health of their members.

However, despite Adelaide's northern suburbs having some of South Australia's highest rates of older women living alone along with high rates of unemployment and many newly-arrived migrants there is no men's shed equivalent for women.

Ms Wlochowicz said many people in the area do not have the cash to spend at cafes, movies or even buying a book and that social isolation was a "massive" problem.

"A lot of women often stay in domestic violence relationships because they are isolated, they don't have a support network, [or] people they can go to for advice and help," she said.

"When you're retired money is minimal, you don't have a lot to spend and if you're a young mum, you don't have a lot to spend either."

Using donations and a $1,000 grant, Ms Wlochowicz and a volunteer committee have turned a donated, disused school building in Davoren Park into the Playford Women's Shed.

It is a social hub for women of all ages, backgrounds and cultures.

It has taken five months to clean the building, which has been vacant for six years and to remove knee-high weeds from the courtyard.

"From the moment I spoke women's shed, it's taken on a life of its own, it's grown exponentially," Ms Wlochowicz said.

"It just seems that whatever we've needed it's come to us because I think the essence of a women's shed is just so necessary, the community's gone 'yep, we want to be there'.

"We are the first women's shed in South Australia. We hope that this will become a place that's renowned."

The shed has been created as a casual drop-in space that will also offer craft workshops, cooking classes and opportunities for migrants to speak English.

An op shop has also been set up on the site and it will provide packs for vulnerable women in need of clothing and supplies.

For Cynthia Bubner, it has given her "a new lease on life".

"I was pretty much reclusive up until a few weeks ago when we started all this up. I'd moved house and I'd hit a bit of a plateau of just feeling a bit bland," she said.

"I just feel all yippee inside all the time now.

"It's a ripper of a thing you know, fair dinkum it's just bloody totally, totally rapt in the whole thing.

"It's very serendipitous because we kind of bumped into this person and that person, so it's all come together like a melting pot of dreams."

Topics:community-organisations,charities-and-community-organisations,community-and-society,community-and-multicultural-festivals,volunteers,adelaide-5000,sa,australia

Read more here:
Women's shed to open in Adelaide's north to combat social isolation - ABC News