It's a new look, but the same heart.

Here at A Way Out we've been having a bit of a makeover.

We've just got started and there's more to come. You'll be seeing these changes in our publicity, on our website and in our communications. It's an exciting time to be at A Way Out and we think that our new imagery matches that vibe. We still have the same big heart for the people of Teesside and we're still passionate about Reaching, Changing and Saving lives. 

This heart is a picture of what A Way Out stands for. Clients we work with come from all sorts of backgrounds and can feel exploited, abandoned, abused, rejected, angry, lonely, hopeless, lost, trapped... We want to break into their situations and mend broken hearts, bringing love, hope, freedom, joy, education, wholeness, empowerment, a sense of direction, safety... the list goes on!

We love seeing lives being completely transformed and that is something that we really do see every day! We want more and more people to hear these stories and our new look is all part of helping us get that message across.

This is our new logo and tagline that you will start seeing from now on:

What do you think about this new look? We'd love to get your feedback! Leave a comment here or on Facebook or Twitter.

Love from A Way Out x

Guest Blogger: Adam

  Hi, my name is Adam. My actual job title is so long it could probably have a blog of it’s own, but in essence I co-ordinate, develop and deliver prevention work in A Way Out. I’ve been involved here for a few years now and it’s pretty amazing to see how it’s changed and grown and tried to cling to what is was set up for despite everything that comes with developing at such a rate.

A lot of my time is spent with young men aged 16-25 supporting them in a variety of ways. Football is popular and my shins usually bear witness to how much the lads enjoy coming! Another good session is anything involving eating together, though I’m not sure who enjoys it more – the staff or the clients.

We are also able deliver 1 to 1 support to a bunch of clients. This varies from helping clients to resolve issues in their lives, such as budgeting support or housing options; to more general befriending sessions, where we aim to simply spend positive time with the lads and be an ear to hear what’s going on. This often leads into mentoring situations where we are able to help lads reflect and make positive lifestyle choices. One such lad commented recently that he felt he was no longer a “rip-your-head-off-kinda-guy” which is a massive step forward. The impact of these sessions is sometimes seen after a long period, but they always seem to make a positive difference to people. We are increasingly learning again and again the value of being committed and simply spending quality time with people.

 As well as this I am also involved with some schools work (healthy lifestyle / self-esteem sessions), some community-based work, such as a weekly community church event (which provides opportunity for people to be prayed for), and group sessions supporting young men as a group. My role is to develop this prevention work, so we are slowly but surely expanding to reach more young men that could do with some support from places such as hostels and supported living schemes. We would like to develop our work in earlier prevention with younger clients as well.

We have quality staff on our team with massive skill sets from art, music and handy man skills (and that’s just one guy) to ball sports, water sports, and outdoor adventure expertise. This is great for me as it allows us to do things with the lads that would otherwise not be possible. But the most important aspect the great team bring is that they love the guys they work with and are good at listening, reflecting and hanging out with the guys- making a clear difference to their lives.

 One of the highlights of the summer was our day trip to Richmond with the young men. We took a group of over 18s from across the young men's caseload on a trip to Richmond. Despite the weather (slightly British and wet!) we all had a great time playing rounders (skidding everywhere on wet grass and loving the opportunity to throw balls at each other) football and messing about in the river (shivering, shivering and shivering some more), as well as a cracking and slightly miraculous BBQ in the rain! The lads really seemed to enjoy themselves - even those who braved the icy river! We're looking forward to the next opportunity, perhaps an autumn day trip with the lads and staff getting back to their hunter gatherer roots!

All in all I have a great job working with great people- staff and clients alike. It’s amazing when you can see the lads benefiting from the work we deliver or knowing that they can come and see you when they need someone to talk to. It’s also great just getting to know the clients and hear their stories. The more time I spend with the lads on our case load, the more I start to wonder if we benefit just as much or more than they do.

Love from A Way Out x

Events, events, events...

We've been away at festivals over the summer promoting A Way Out and selling our brand new merchandise (details about this coming soon!) but we're back now doing what we love and running events around Teesside. 

The first of these is coming up this Friday at The Basement in Middlesbrough:

This will be open to anyone above the age of 14 and there'll be mocktails and cocktails on offer as well delicious cupcakes provided by The American Cake Company. Great music, great food, great company- we'll see you there!

Next up is Rags and Muffins Yarm. This is a slightly smaller event than our usual Middlesbrough one but it is well worth a visit. Supported by the Soroptimists International there'll be rails of clothes for you to browse as well as an open bar, cupcakes and featured local businesses present. And all that with free entry!

And of course, we promised that Rags and Muffins would be returning to Middlesbrough and here it is:

 This time around we are expanding to include menswear and children's clothes so this certainly won't be a girls only event. We're also keeping all our favourite features: fashion show, DJ, cupcakes, vintage corner, Bucks Fizz reception and charity cocktails. An event not to be missed!

Hopefully one of these takes your fancy, maybe more than one. If you coming along, why not pop over and say hi at the A Way Out stand? We love to meet friends new and old.

Love from A Way Out x

Total Warrior Photos!

As promised, here are the photos of Jessie, Sarah Jane, Chris and Dave who competed in Total Warrior a couple of weeks ago...

Chris, Dave, Sarah Jane and Jessie: feeling bright and energetic before the race got started...

The beginning of the 10k gruelling challenge

Getting towards the end now- I think arms must be very tired

Check out the landscape- it even looks quite good in the rain

Getting the electric shock treatment!

Still smiling at the end

A well deserved drink

For the low-down on Total Warrior and why these crazy people were taking part in it, have a look at our previous blog 'Running For Love. Could You Do This?' Well done to Dave, Chris, Jessie and Sarah Jane- what an amazing thing to do to make a difference to the lives of at risk women and youth in Teesside.

Love from A Way Out x

Something a little different...

Hi, my name is Niomi and I have been volunteering at A WAY OUT since October and  I honestly cannot describe how amazing it is. The staff are amazing, the clients are amazing and the work we all do together is amazing! Anyway, Whilst Jenny is off on her jollies, she has left me in charge of updating the blog and keeping all you readers up to date with the day to day happenings of A WAY OUT. So, let’s see how this goes…

Last week A WAY OUT was action packed as per, if not more so with preparations under way for the Total Warrior challenge! We were even lucky enough to be given the opportunity to take the girls from the community drop-in bowling thanks to 'Cash for Kids'. The community drop-in is a group which takes place every Wednesday for girls ages 16-21 as part of the recovery work we do here at AWO. This drop-in is a chance for our service users to integrate themselves back into the community within a safe and secure environment, where they are made to feel welcome and at home. 

Bowling is a brilliant activity to get the girls involved with. They have always thoroughly enjoyed it in the past and being away from the centre gives the girls a change of scenery, as well as the chance to have a go at something they may not have tried before.

The girls split up into 3 teams and wanted to add a bit of competition to the mix and see who could score the highest. Spirits were high throughout the day and there was plenty of laughter, smiles and team work! The joy element is an essential part to our work as much as the structured group sessions we put on. It helps those who are sometimes less fortunate or have never had the chance to JUST HAVE FUN! There is no better feeling than seeing our clients laughing, smiling and just enjoying themselves!

Love from A Way Out x

Our first guest blogger: Lizzie!

My name’s Lizzie and I’m the education worker at A Way Out. My official title is ‘Vulnerable Young Persons Education Development Worker’ (very long, I know)!

I’ve worked for A Way Out for 3 years now and my main role is to co-ordinate accredited and informal learning amongst our service users. I believe that everyone has the right to an education and can be educated regardless of their background, ability, situation or age. Often our service users may have had bad experiences in the past but A Way Out eases them gently back into education and in many cases a learner may achieve their first ever certificate. This can often be the start of a learning journey they would otherwise not have embarked upon!

Education at A Way Out can mean working with young people who have been permanently excluded from school, going into a secondary schools to deliver self esteem workshops and healthy lifestyle sessions, running employment courses with our adult service users or running a creative arts project with local professional artists. With me being the only girl on this team I often will do some youth outreach type work too, whether its running a girls group or helping out at a youth club roadshow!

Some proud girls with their certificates

When we run ‘education’ projects, the education side is only a small part of it. There may be other issues that need to be dealt with and I often refer people on to colleagues or outside agencies. There may be worrying stuff that is happening at home that we need to tackle or maybe on that particular day they just need a listening ear. Although we are looking to improve their education, it’s really about improving their life as a whole. So sometimes I’m a youth worker, sometimes a befriender, often it feels like I am a counsellor and sometimes I'm a teacher. You never know what each day will bring!

Improving fitness

Raising self-esteem and aspirations through recreational activities

With it being the holidays at the moment, not a lot of education happens as the schools are shut, so I've been getting up to some different things...

• We are going to start providing accreditation for our volunteer program in September! This means our volunteers will not only receive excellent, relevant training but also a Level 1 accreditation too! So in the next couple of weeks I'm going to be busy writing unit plans and workbooks. Watch this space volunteers!

• Matty (our outreach worker) and I are busy recruiting young people for our Summer Trips to Lightwater Valley, Redcar beach, Beamish Museum, a picnic in the park and some other places too! These give young people the opportunity to do something fun in the holidays and also provide time for us to build relationships with them. It gives them an experience they may not otherwise have and more importantly it takes them off dangerous estates and can give them a break from distressing home lives.

• Whilst I'm not out on trips and writing units I will have time to prepare for the next school term. We’re working in three schools in September delivering workshops on drugs and alcohol awareness, self esteem and healthy lifestyles. I’ll be coming up with schemes of work, lesson plans and material for those. One of the schools is new to A Way Out so we hope to make a good impression!

Learning about drug categories

I'm looking forward to September as lots of things happening. Hopefully we'll increase our work with young people who are at risk of been excluded and we are going to be developing our one to one sessions. I'm wanting to create a weekly education afternoon where A Way Out service users can access education in basic skills, for example in maths, independent living etc.. And chatting to a young person yesterday about healthy eating has give me the idea to run healthy cooking classes! So all very exciting stuff!

Love from A Way Out x

Running for love. Could you do this?

The route Jessie (our CEO) and SJ (our community fundraiser), will be running on Saturday, together with some very loyal supporters of A Way Out!

This Saturday, staff at A Way Out and other volunteers will be taking part in the Total Warrior Challenge in the beautiful but unforgiving Lake District terrain. They are competing in a 10km race which includes an 8ft wall, swamps, fire and tunnels to raise money for A Way Out. Some would say that this is an exciting and exhilarating way to spend a Saturday afternoon, others may say it's fairly foolish! Whatever your opinion though, it is an impressive feat and next week, we will be writing a blog letting you know how they got on!

(If you're impressed by this and feel it's worth sponsoring then here is the link to Jessie's sponsorship page.)

But if Total warrior isn't your cup of tea, then maybe a slightly calmer 10k run would be more down your street:

You can now register for the Middlebrough 10k event which is taking place on Sunday 4th September. You can run it, walk it or jog it and the route is all on flat roads (no surprise 8ft walls to get over I promise)! This is ideal for people of any level as you can go completely at your own pace, taking it as seriously as you like and there is also a 3k fun run which is great for families to take part in.

If you would like to raise money for A Way Out by taking part in the Middlesbrough run then it is really easy! All you have to do is register yourself online at http://www.middlesbrough10krun.com/ccm/portal/ and then drop us a line to let us know you've entered. We can then send you a sponsor form and a t-shirt to run in. And there is no minimum amount to raise, every penny is so important!

This promises to be a really fun event and who knows, maybe you'll fancy trying the Total Warrior Challenge next year?!

Love from A Way Out x