SkyDiving for A Way Out

A Way Out is always so grateful for our incredible supporters – you all do such amazing things, some of which are even a bit mad! Like Karla, who in a couple of weeks’ time, will be leaping from a plane to raise money for A Way Out.

 

Our Communications Facilitator Amy caught up with Karla to ask her a few questions about what she’s doing and why…

 

A: Hi Karla, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?

K: Absolutely! I live in Roseworth with my partner and my cat, and I’m saving up to get married abroad in a few years.  I wanted to make a change this year, to make better life choices with work and food and to start helping others – I just became a vegetarian and I love it!

A: How did you find out about A Way Out?

K: One of my good friends worked for A Way Out a while ago, so I knew about the charity, but then I saw it was being promoted by Stockton Town Football Club as the charity they wanted to support this year.

A: What made you want to fundraise for A Way Out?

K: I’d heard a lot about you and the things you do to help people in need. The team sounds amazing. I’ve wanted to support the charity for so long but up until now there’s always been something in the way.

A: Why a sky dive?!

K: I'm a thrill seeker and have always wanted to skydive. My partner Carl said he would pay for me to skydive for my 25th birthday, but I wanted to do it to raise money as well and I knew that A Way Out was the one I wanted to do it for.

A: How do you feel about it?

K: I can't wait! It's going to be so exciting – but scary at the same time.

A: Tell us a bit about the event Stockton Town Football Club are planning for A Way Out.

K: There’s a fundraising night on Saturday 19^th September from 7.30pm at the clubhouse. There’s a great singer booked and there’ll be a raffle and loads of fun – tickets are just £3!

A: What would your advice be to someone who wants to help A Way Out, or any local charity?

K: If anyone was thinking about helping this fantastic charity I would say, 'why wait?!' I waited long enough to do something and wish I had done it sooner. It's so easy to help, just email, phone or pop down to A Way Out and ask what you can do to help. They always welcome things for food parcels and people to raise money for the charity. Like me :)

A: Thanks so much Karla! We are so grateful for what you’re doing and hope your skydive is a fantastic experience.

You can sponsor Karla for her courageous sky dive here

Together: Everyone Achieves More

Some catchphrases stick with you.

 

For me, there is something the leader of my gap year team would say repeatedly, so much so that the whole team learned to parrot the phrase - even if one of us just mentioned the very first word, everyone else would jump in to complete the saying.

 

It stayed with me and even now, fourteen years later, I can still remember how he would constantly remind us that we were a team, and in a team--

Together: Everyone Achieves More  

 

We've seen this at A Way Out, both within our internal team of staff and volunteers, but also through the strong partnerships we have with other organisations and individuals - and in this we discover the wonderful synergy of teamwork, when the combined effort is greater than the sum of collective parts.

 

Recently, A Way Out was recognised in the Lloyds Bank Foundation Charity Achievement Awards, which acknowledge life-changing work being done by charities nationwide and had almost 1000 applicants. A Way Out achieved Highly Commended in the North East for 'Enterprising Collaboration'. We are proud to be distinguished in this way, as a charity that values collaboration and seeks to do this creatively and intentionally.

 

Within these collaborative structures, there are wonderful moments of connection as we seek to make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable individuals.

 

Part of our youth project is a schools-based mentoring programme, and within this we are able to offer feedback to the school from our expertise and experience. We are so pleased that the school welcomes our feedback and recently one teacher shared with our youthworker how encouraged they were by one young person's progress - so much so that they were acting on our feedback to change their teaching approach, in order to better engage the young person in the classroom.

 

The teacher's openness and desire to collaborate was deeply beneficial to the young person, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to work in partnership with such committed and caring professionals, learning from one another as we go.

 

Again and again, we see the truth in that phrase, that as a team--

Together: Everyone Achieves More.

Our great team couldn't function without the hard work and dedication of many wonderful volunteers. If you have a few hours free each month or week and share our heart to reach vulnerable women and young people, get in touch with us on 01642 655071 or send us an email.

 

With your help and support, perhaps we'll be able to achieve even more.