Forty seven per cent of people with any kind of disability  are in employment (as compared to 74% in the working age population as a whole) however only 21% of people with mental health problems are in work .Why is this ? Lack of confidence and self-esteem are major barriers to people suffering mental health problems in accessing education and employment. Can social learning theories and the culture of a community of practise offer ways of addressing this problem ? Lave and Wenger’s work(1991) on communities of practise offer a model of learning through social interaction which might benefit students with mental health problems. Gallery 89 is a social enterprise attached to the mental health department at Barnet College. The class associated with it provides an ideal opportunity to explore the cross over between social enterprise and teaching. The research aims to discover what makes a community of practise thrive within further education. What  facilitates and hinders  the creation of a community of practise? What are the  positive and negative outcomes of creating a community of practise ? In particular what effect does it have on the confidence of its students as expressed through their motivation ? This is the narrative account of a group of 12 students and how they come to grips with who they are within the Gallery 89 endeavour.  It charts the project from its beginning as a white cube gallery space with great artwork but little or no community through to the creation of a group of actively involved volunteers in a space doubling as a workshop. The story is still unfolding as the gallery’s future as a work and training project and the future careers of the student volunteers progress.

1 in 6 people experience mental health problems at any given time. This research is seeking to gain valuable insights into how a community of practise can contribute to reaching students in most need of training and education beyond the discrete provisions such as the one at Barnet College.

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