Bill Smith, Norwich Evening News

Members of a WEA art workshop at Bishopbridge House, in Norwich, are preparing a float as part of the Lord Mayor's Procession next month. A WEA tutor visits the hostel, generally for homeless people, every week to help residents prepare the float and its scenery.

Many residents at the hostel have had to deal with difficult times in their lives including drug addiction, crime and prostitution. By making this float students are not only creating a piece of art work for the procession, but are also working to build a better life.

Student, Gemma Freeman, was spending up to £1,000 a week on heroin and crack cocaine, with crime and prostitution paying for her habit. Gemma was at a low point in her life, as she ended up serving a prison sentence and had to give her son up for adoption. However, Gemma is now on the right track and hopeful about the future. Gemma says: "I have just got clean off heroin and this is my window back into a bit of normality," said 26-year-old Gemma. "I was on heroin for about eight years. If it wasn't for coming here, and getting the opportunity to do courses like this, I would have ended up back in prison. Now I've been clean for 12 weeks. It's the best I've ever done."

Gemma now feels that she has got in with the right people - like the staff at Bishopbridge House and the WEA tutors who lead courses there. Gemma currently chairs the residents' committee at the hostel and is a keen member of a group putting a newsletter together. "They make me feel like I'm independent. They make me feel like I'm part of a team. They make me feel I can energise and motivate myself and other people," said Gemma. Eventually she hopes to work with drug addicts and prostitutes, helping them turn their lives around too.

Siobhan Smith, who organises activities at Bishopbridge House, said: "All the WEA courses are really popular. As well as the Lord Mayor's Procession they are doing the newsletter with us and a numeracy course. Their tutors are always very good, really knowledgeable with a great understanding of our client group."

The WEA has worked with the St Martin's Housing Trust, which runs Bishopbridge House, for many years in courses such as art, sculpture, film-making. Learning these basic skills have helped people build new lives as well as creating carnival floats, a film called Positively Homeless and the mosaics decorating the entrance to the hostel.