Greenbank is a charity in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, UK which runs the Greenbank Sports Academy and neighbouring Greenbank College. It works to provide opportunities in employment, education, sport and leisure for disabled people and other disadvantaged groups.

Founding

Greenbank was founded by Gerry Kinsella, former Paralympic athlete and now the charity's chief executive. In 1982 Kinsella raised £30,000 to fund the build of the Academy with a sponsored wheelchair push from

Land's End to John o' Groats Land's End to John o' Groats is the traversal of the length of the island of Great Britain between two List of extreme points of the United Kingdom#Extreme points within the UK, extremities, in the southwest and northeast. The traditional di ...

. The charity has subsequently received funding from The Big Lottery Fund and St James’s Place Foundation.

Sports academy

The Academy now has "specially designed, high-quality facilities to play 13 different disability sports". It has been used as an Olympic training facility, and as a training camp for teams from Namibia and Romania. British Paralympic medalist Nathan Maguire first settled on his chosen sport of

wheelchair racing Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and field, track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, including leg amputees, spinal cord injuries, and cerebral palsy. Athletes are c ...

, one of the sports Greenbank offers, at the facility when he was 15.

College

Greenbank College offers full-time education for those aged 16 to 25, as well as courses for adults aged 19 and over. The majority of students have special educational needs or an education, health and care (EHC) plan, ie. "need more support than is available through special educational needs support".

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

states that "The

Liverpool City Region The Liverpool City Region is a combined authority area in North West England. It has six council areas: the five metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside (Liverpool, Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Knowsley, Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, St H ...

(LCR) has the highest unemployment rate across the north-west region and nationally. The Greenbank Project is recognised as a key influencing partner in the LCR and has contributed recently to the development of the city region’s skills strategy." It rates the school as "good". Subjects offered include Business and Administration / Customer Service, Catering, Functional Skills (English/Maths), Fashion & Textiles, Hairdressing, IT and Sport. The College runs a hair and beauty show to showcase its students' work. In previous years it has collaborated on this with LIPA,

Museum of Liverpool The Museum of Liverpool in Liverpool, England, tells the story of Liverpool and its people, and reflects the city's global significance. It opened in 2011 as newest addition to the National Museums Liverpool group replacing the former Museum o ...

, and The Black-E.

References

External links

*{{official
Greenbank Sports AcademyGreenbank College
Charities based in England Schools in Liverpool Paralympic sports Para-athletics Disability organisations based in England