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This paper is part of a project designed to investigate the extent to which urban communities that include significant populations of disadvantaged citizens are engaging in community-based strategies centred on learning and the contribution of vocational education and training (VET) organisations. Four case studies based in urban areas in four different states were undertaken as part of the research approach. Each case study examined a specific initiative that met the criteria for a ‘learning community’ and involved at least one VET organisation. This case study focuses on the Youth Issues Working Party of the recently established South-East Local Learning and Employment Network (SELLEN) in the Dandenong region of Victoria. Using processes that meet the criteria of a learning community, the SELLEN and its Youth Issues Working Party is finding ways to elicit significant and meaningful contributions from young people to enable it to achieve its goals. The paper covers the concept and form of the learning community, strategies being created to develop the concept, how these strategies link in with general community capacity building, the outcomes for disadvantaged groups and individuals, and how the initiative will be evaluated.