Are you a list maker?

Working for A Way Out I know that I couldn’t function without making a to-do list.  I have even been known to add things to my list that I have just completed, simply for the satisfaction of proving the task is accomplished and the fulfillment of placing a big tick beside the chore!

Psychologists speak of the benefits of list-making in terms of reducing anxiety and enhancing performance encouraging non-list makers to give it a try.

Christmas is the prime list making season – children writing wish lists to Santa cataloguing hopeful dreams of treasures to be found beneath the tree; gift shopping lists; food shopping lists; card writing lists.  Checking it once and checking it twice, just to make sure no task and no one has been forgotten.  If list-making reduces stress, now is definitely the time to start the habit.

A Way Out’s Christmas list includes 200 selection boxes; seasonal food for over 100 Christmas food parcels; around 100 special individual gifts for the women and girls on our caseload; securing cash donations to provide a special Christmas dinner for our clients to enjoy together around a table.  Many of our clients don’t appear on any other list.

Could you donate to support our clients? Why not place A Way Out on your Christmas to-do list and feel the satisfaction, when you place that big tick beside the completed task, in the knowledge that you have also helped to make Christmas special for someone who may not appear on the list of anyone else.

In order to distribute in time we need to receive donations by 14^th December.   For further information please contact info@awayout.co.uk or 01642 655071.

Written by Anita, General Manager

Love still stands...

My role at A Way Out has become even more exciting this month as I have incorporated part time studying alongside my work responsibilities.  My brain is getting used to switching from managerial mode at the office to student mode in lectures.  In the first weeks of the term there has been so much to take in that my brain capacity has had to stretch …. other mature learners will share how I feel when I say it’s like I need to grow a second brain!

I remember a similar feeling awaiting the birth of my second child… time I considered how much I loved my first born with all of my heart… so where was I going to find more love?  I learned that we don’t possess a limited quota of love and when my second child appeared the love appeared aplenty… I’m just hoping the same will apply to my brain capacity as my studying progresses!

As we approach the season of ‘goodwill to all’ (in less than 2 months) our challenge could be for us each to increase our capacity to love.  One of my favourite bible verses says  “Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.”

Christmas is a time when A Way Out shows some of Stockton’s most vulnerable women, families and young people an extra portion of love - ensuring each has a gift, seasonal food, and a celebration to attend.  We can’t do this without you sharing some of your love too – please consider donating a Christmas present or cash gift and help us show that love still stands when all else may have fallen.

Written by Anita, General Manager