Greenbank (charity)

Greenbank is a charity in Liverpool, 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. 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, 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 states that "The Liverpool City Region (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, and The Black-E.