Greenhouse

Mission Statement

Greenhouse has a mission to empower young people from disadvantaged communities through sport and performing arts, helping them to overcome adversity and achieve their goals by improving their outlook, engagement and achievement.

The Greenhouse Programme

Greenhouse provides young people from disadvantaged communities, in mainstream or Special Educational Needs (SEN) education, with high quality coaching in sports and performing arts.

A child will typically arrive at the programme with little or no experience of the sport and will have few of the skills or the belief that they need to succeed. A Greenhouse coach will work with that young person to build their self-confidence and show them the value of self-discipline and working with others.

The activities now include dance, drama, football, swimming, table tennis, basketball, judo, volleyball and multisports.

The Coaches

Greenhouse is proud to include amongst its coaches former Commonwealth champions, Olympians and Royal Ballet dancers. The coaches are selected based on both their sports coaching and their ability to inspire young people.

The coaching is offered to those young people who face the greatest challenge, regardless of ability. The organisation prides itself on being able to adapt its programme to suit everyone from the complete novice to the elite sporting star of the future.

The Young People

Last year the organisation reached 10,000 young people, of which over 40% were receiving free school meals and 40% were from single parent families.

The programme works primarily with children attending secondary school, but it does also work with 8-11 year olds in feeder primaries to help smooth their transition from primary to secondary education.

The programme is available to all young people attending the school in which it is present. However, the organisation also works with the school to identify the young people who would gain the most from attending the programme. The young person will then have an agreement drawn up between them and the school stipulating the conditions to which they must adhere if they want to continue attending the Greenhouse programme. 30.7% of young people on the programme last year were referred by their school for behavioural or attendance issues.

For more information, please visit their website http://www.greenhousecharity.org/