A men's mental health charity that aims to give blokes a place to talk will launch a Newcastle chapter on Tuesday.
Tim Hewson, founder of Mongrels Men, said Newcastle would be the charity's 13th location.
Weekly meet-ups will be held at the Newcastle Beach kiosk from 6am to 7.30am for "a walk and talk" and free coffee each Tuesday.
Mr Hewson said the idea was to "give guys time to get together and break down barriers".
"Then it's a coffee on us because we reckon it's a cheap investment to get guys talking," he said.
The charity has community champions who run the meet-ups.
Newcastle champion Michael Cradock experienced "a series of acute stresses" in recent years working in senior management.
"I realised I didn't have the social group around me to talk about those matters. Then I read about Mongrels Men," Mr Cradock said.
"I thought that's exactly what I need - a group meeting regularly, where there's no forced conversation.
"The purpose of us meeting is to walk and say what's on our mind, knowing there's bravery around doing that."
Mr Cradock said Mongrels Men created these "brave spaces" with the idea that "a trouble shared is a trouble halved".
During the pandemic, Mr Cradock had scheduled a catch-up call with "one of my first employees in a business I owned in the UK".
"We were catching up after many years of losing contact," he said.
"He replied that he had a migraine, then two weeks later he killed himself at age 32.
"A brave space is a place to talk about things before they become so bad."
Mr Hewson founded the charity three years ago, partly inspired by his football connections.
He plays the round-ball game and manages a team in Sydney.
"We were out one evening and one of the guys said 'thanks for organising for me to turn up and play with you blokes'.
"I made a joke about how cutting oranges and washing bibs was my love language.
"He said 'seriously, if you didn't organise for me to turn up and play and support these blokes, I wouldn't be here'."
The football teammates were "there for each other when we step over the white line".
"But we'd missed just how much this guy had been struggling for the past six months.
"Another guy said games were the only 90 minutes he gets to himself each week. Those kinds of things were quite powerful to me."
Mr Hewson had been through his own mental health challenges.
"I went through a separation and divorce. I was out with people walking and talking, shoulder to shoulder, sharing my shit," he said.
"I've had anxiety, depression and panic attacks. I did nothing about it for 20 years. I realised I needed to shift from 'soldiering on and sucking it up to speaking up'."
This was what the Mongrels' groups were "designed to do".
"Our goal is to reduce, prevent and control the impact of mental health illnesses, disorders and suicide in Australian men," Mr Hewson said.
He said the charity had five pillars: exercise, connection, conversation, community and education.
"We provide information and education through our Dog House workshops.
"Once we build some momentum in Newcastle, we'll get those up and running."
The workshops provide men with "tools of resilience".
"We teach about mental health signs and symptoms, how to have challenging conversations, provide support and tackle the suicide issue," he said.
"The most important part is the local community support network."
Mr Hewson said the charity was "a 100 per cent volunteer organisation".
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Mensline 1300 789 978; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; beyondblue 1300 224 636; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732.
