We Know How To Have A Good Holiday!

Hello and welcome back! We've been away for a couple of weeks but we now have lots of exciting things to update you on.

Today Lizzie, our Education Development worker, told me about what she and the rest of the team have been up to with our younger service users...

"We feel recreational & positive activities are so important at A Way Out. Many people will have childhood memories that they will cherish: picnics, paddling in the sea, playing sports on the beach, going to see annual pantomime, going on a bike ride, the list goes on. Often young people we work with for various reason may not have that opportunity to create those memories."

That's where A Way Out comes in!

"Our holiday activities aim to:

Provide young people with positive experiences

Raise Aspirations

Give young people simple enjoyment, joy & fun

Improve community cohesions & integration

Give young people a sense of acceptance and belonging

Reduce isolation & loneliness

Prevent boredom during the holiday that may lead to risk taking behaviour

Build relationships that may lead to further support for the young person.

So these are some of the things we've been doing:

We’ve had over a 100 Easter eggs donated from A Way Out staff, family & friends, churches and local business. We’ve given out 106 so far and will continue to distribute them the rest of the week."

We started with an Easter bonnet competition in one of our school groups:

"Then we had an afternoon on Port Clarence distributing Easter Eggs and playing games on the field. We met lots of new young people and were able to invite them to our Saltburn beach trip happening later on in the week."

"Tuesday, outreach workers, Mark and Matty took some lads to Preston Park for a BBQ and a game of Crazy golf. Much to his delight, Mark won!"

"Wednesday, we had a very wet & muddy trip up to Roseberry Topping,  a very quick picnic at the top as a storm was on its way and then made our way back down. 12 out the 13 young people had never been up before so it was certainly a new experience for them and they felt quite proud when they made it to the top! Especially the young people that were scared of heights!"

"And today we are having a girls treat to bowling and pizza hut and tomorrow we are ending the holiday with a beach trip to Saltburn providing the weather is okay... There might have to be a contingency plan of the cinema if not!"

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