A WILTSHIRE training organisation has set up a community business for people with mental health problems in Devizes.

Evergreen Services, a non-profit making co-operative enabling people with mental health problems to work, will be offering services such as gardening, window cleaning and car valeting and is based in Green Lane, Devizes.

The co-operative, which started last month, is a new venture for Supported Employment Services, a charity which was set up in Wiltshire ten years ago, initially as a three-year pilot project but which has continued and flourished.

Nick Lowe, manager of Supported Employment Services, said: "We find work experience placements for people with disabilities. Most of the people we see have not worked before or not worked for between five and ten years. They have a long habit of not working and it's a case of finding where they need to start.

"Generally they will come to us and say what they would like to do and we try to find opportunities with local companies for them. It can be as little as a couple of hours a week in a workplace.

"In future our work will be more about setting people up in self-employment and Evergreen Services is a good example."

Mr Lowe said more than one third of clients get a job with the company they join for work experience. Clients work in a variety of sectors including catering, gardening, computers and one man is helping to repair Salisbury Cathedral.

Supported Employment Services was set up by Wiltshire Social Services in 1990 with the intention of running for three years helping between ten and 15 people a year. It now helps more than 100 people each year.