A man in a black mask walked into the council housing benefit office, writes Amanda Castleman. A panicked employee reached for the alarm button, never guessing the head-gear concealed a community leader, whose intent was far from criminal.

"It was a training session," explains Karen Mackley, programme director for Common Purpose.

"We sent them out in wheelchairs or in visually-impaired glasses to demonstrate how difficult it was for disabled people to get around Oxford. Each had a task - to buy tickets from the Playhouse or ask for a bank loan, for example. "Unfortunately, the glasses do rather look like a mask. The benefits office thought it was a raid."

Luckily, most Common Purpose exercises are less provoking. The educational charity brings together movers and shakers from across cities to share ideas.

"There's a lot of senior people who wield great power and influence, but they often don't talk to each other," Karen points out. Common Purpose began ten years ago to bridge that gap and is now a nationwide organisation.

Oxford has been involved since 1996, with about 150 "pupils". Leaders from the worlds of business, charity, government and education are invited to participate. Their mission, should they chose to accept it, is to examine core issues facing the community, such as health and crime.

"It's all about understanding how an area works, building networks," she says. "It's kind of a street-wise MBA. We target people on a senior level. They learn, then can go back and implement new ideas."

Sometimes the results are immediate, such as the upcoming Oxfordshire 2000 Millennium Celebration, which arose from a brainstorming session. The Oxford Playhouse has also reaped the rewards, as business leaders began sponsoring buses for theatre-going schoolchildren. "A lot of the benefits are intangible, like having your views challenged," Karen says. "Very fundamentally, it broadens ideas of active citizenship. In this era of globalisation, I'm often surprised by the lack of understanding.

"Now we're not about creating an exclusive network of the great and good. We don't want to be the coffee club of the new Millennium. Common Purpose is about active citizenship.

"If you are a leader, decisions you make impact the wider community. You need to see things in a larger context."

Karen admits such talk is "flavour of the month", but says Common Purpose manages to deliver and build local ties. Many of the new-found friendships lead to work shadowing and sometimes even to new co-operation between groups. Alan Street, a director at Oxford Instruments, and Rosie Hallam, director of the work rehabilitation charity Restore, found unexpected common ground - and a few of Rosie's clients were given work placement.

Alan says: "I do a lot of travelling so it is very easy to have your head down and and forget the world around you. Before I did Common Purpose, I was pretty nicely isolated from issues such as drugs, education and homelessness.

"I wanted to try to find ways to get employees and the company involved in community-based issues or projects."

Rosie was delighted. "It is a brilliant idea, because it brings together the voluntary, public and private sector to understand each other better." This spirit of cooperation attracted Playhouse director Tish Francis. "I had a sense there was a lack of civic vision in Oxford," she says. "Common Purpose would get me out of the theatre environment and open up my understanding of how other people on my level are operating in the city."

Yet the charity doesn't only target professional success stories. A new programme involves 14-year-olds from independent and state schools. Further expansion may include graduates and seniors.

Those wishing to become involved should contact Karen or Liz Collinson on 01235 555264. And don't worry, the disabled-access exercise has been scrapped. First the "raid", then a man walked into a traffic bollard, endangering his ability to have children.

Lessons shouldn't be that hard to learn.

Story date: Wednesday 22 March

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.