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Our regular page listing reports, publications and training materials of relevance to readers. If you come across new publications, training materials, websites or other resources that might be of interest to other readers, please send details to the editors at adampozner@trinova.freeserve.co.uk

Our new regular page listing reports, publications and training materials of relevance to readers. If you come across new publications, training materials, websites or other resources that might be of interest to other readers, please send details to the editors at adampozner@trinova.freeserve.co.uk

Our new regular page listing reports, publications and training materials of relevance to readers. If you come across new publications, training materials, websites or other resources that might be of interest to other readers, please send details to the editors at adampozner@trinova.freeserve.co.uk

In this issue, we profile the in‐house employment projects developed by City & County of Swansea over the last 15 years. For individuals recovering from serious mental health problems, these offer a good choice of supportive work environments in which they can rebuild confidence and develop skills needed for the wider labour market. The range of social enterprises is interesting, and includes ones that use computer and digital camera technologies, as well as the more traditional catering and gardening ventures. It is perhaps no accident that the enterprises with the most commercial promise are those that have developed good links with local public sector agencies. The importance cannot be overstated of the role of statutory agencies from a wide range of sectors in supporting such enterprises through commercial contracts and through positive action strategies in recruitment.

Programmes offering support for individuals with mental health problems to run their own businesses are still rare, yet self‐employment could be an ideal approach for many people. In this issue we offer profiles of two pan‐disability agencies providing support for individuals to move towards self‐employment and entrepreneurship. Business Ability is a multi‐agency project operating in the south east, offering comprehensive packages of support tailored to each individual's need. East Lancs Into Employment, a charity based in Burnley, also offers a range of support for self‐employment, but with different components. Both agencies are working successfully with individuals with mental health problems and business survival rates are good. Usefully, these agencies have been able to identify critical success factors for working with this group, which may be of particular interest to A Life in the Day readers. We conclude with a book review.

PERA is launching a project to increase the potential applications of pultrusion, giving new confidence to end users in the quality and reliability of pultruded material.

Moving beyond cost to quality issues, some companies are playing the “choice” card.

This article profiles CornerHouse, an organisation that has played a key role in facilitating the emergence and development of a large number of mental health services and self‐help groups in West Surrey. CornerHouse takes a community development approach, facilitating and empowering small local mental health groups, and building an active and sustainable local mental health community.

In this issue we profile three physical activity projects, all of which aim to help individuals with mental health problems improve their physical well‐being, rebuild their confidence and start to use ordinary community leisure amenities again. Each project operates in a quite different way but a common ingredient is partnership working with other local agencies across traditional sectoral boundaries. The Barrow Community Gym is an award winning gym offering individually tailored and supported exercise programmes. Portsmouth Interaction offers a range of sports and recreation activities providing stepping stones toward mainstream community provision. Green gyms combine physical exercise with conservation work to improve the local environment, an approach that may appeal to those of us who cannot face the ordinary gym!