A-AWO #womensupportwomen

Left to Right: Sarah-Jane Hill (fundraiser at AWO), Mandy Welland-Taylor and Karen Walker (from Truly Madly Heavenly), Ann Stonehouse (Chair of Assist Networking)

On the 10th October 2012, Assist Networking and AWO combined for a common force for an evening of ladies networking; women supporting women!

The aim of the evening was to spend time together meeting one another over tea, coffee and snacks, exploring the A WAY OUT building, the Gate, and exploring ideas of how women in Teesside can support our work here at A WAY OUT and support eachother.

The wonderful Mandy and Karen of Truly Madly Heavenly ran the evening, with support from our fundraising team. Their fantastic ideas led to a creative mood board session, where each woman had the chance to make a colourful display of ideas. The mood boards were made from magazine clippings, buttons, glittery glue and more, and everyone then presented their mood board on how to support A WAY OUT back to the group for feedback and development of ideas.

The vibe of the evening session was fantastic, the creativity of each person that joined was so encouraging and inspiring. We discussed ideas on how to support women, run events to fundraise for A WAY OUT, run workshop sessions, boost confidence and even more.

One of the ideas that came from the session is the Christmas Afternoon Tea on the 4th December, details of which can be found if you follow this link: Festive Afternoon Tea.

We are so excited for this group of women, committed to doing what they can to support other women. 

#womensupportwomen

If you would like to join A-AWO, fundraise for us, input your creative ideas, run a workshop, or anything else you think of, we would love to hear from you! email Sarah-Jane with ideas and your details, and have a look around our website to see if you can get involved.

We're always looking for volunteers and supporters. Without the work of volunteers, our work here just could not continue. We are so grateful to each and every one of you!

We are really looking forward to the next A-AWO meeting, and seeing how these ideas develop!

Love from A Way Out x

Give As You Live for A Way Out

We have recently signed up to 'Give As You Live' in partnership with EveryClick website, a new initiative enabling our supporters to fundraise for us, as a part of their everyday lives whilst shopping online.

You can either search for shops on their search engine, or download GiveAsYouLive to your computer, and whenever you do your online shopping, a few pennies may be donated to us (free for you!) at the same time.

There are over 2,000 shops participating in the scheme; hmv, Amazon, Boden, John Lewis, lastminute.com and more.

Give As You Live have also offered us a £5 charity donation for every new person who signs up and spends £10 online. If you have a few moments, why not sign up to GiveAsYouLive, and fundraise for us. Every penny counts, and as many people say 'if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves'.

To use the service, simply sign up here: http://www.everyclick.com/awayoutcharity . We really appreciate it, and raising funds is vital for our life-changing work here at A Way Out.

Thank You!

Love from A Way Out x

The Stockton River Rat Race 2012

We have been mightily impressed by the determination of a number of our supporters who have committed themselves to crazy challenge events, raising funds for us. You're all MAD for A WAY OUT, and we love you!

The most recent challenge event was one that took place right on our doorstep - the Stockton River Rat Race. The 10K race involves splashing, jumping, kayaking and running, including a jump from the ship just outside of our office into the cool, deep waters of the river Tees.

The full team standing with the Mayor of Stockton

The preliminary warm-up exercises were very important...

Hands up in the air!

Liam doesn't seem to understand it's "Hands in the Air!"

Squats!

Push-ups

We managed to capture a few snapshots of our team near the end of the race, when they weren't swimming through the River Tees...

Near the finish line

Final Rat Race Obstacles

We met our racers at the finish line, and they did fantastically, and even had enough energy to give us a big grin at the end of it all.

We have also had volunteers who have been fundraising for us through Total Warrior again this year, with bungee jumps and more, and we are grateful to you all. Thank you for all you do - your activities help support our life changing work! (We hope you've had fun in the process... ;))

love from

A Way Out x

An Evening of Rags and Muffins

We held another of our popular Rags and Muffins events a few weeks back. This time, we hosted the event in an evening, different to our usual afternoon slot and naturally the evening oozed style, local talent and class! We had catwalks with fabulous models, dance groups, make-up artists, hair designers and more as well as gorgeous cupcakes and vintage clothes to rummage through.

One of our Rags and Muffins models.

Some of the team behind the event: Karen Heritage, Karen Heritage Dancers and Sarah-Jane our community fundraiser.

The Karen Heritage Dance Group in Action.

More from the Dance Group

All clothes that the models wore were for sale by Vintageous Rags, who sponsored the event.

Some of our lovely models from the catwalk.

One of our Rags and Muffins models.

Sarah-Jane, event co-ordinator and volunteer Tom, who compared the evening for us!

As you know, these events are more than just a good time, they're vital to our funds for our work to continue, and also helps us to raise awareness of who we are and what we do. On that note, we would like to take a moment to thank Asda in Thornaby, Stockton, for making us one of their charities of the month, and if you live in the area - we would love your support if you shop at Asda!

Thanks to all those who participated in our Rags and Muffins event, and to all those who came. We couldn't do it without you!

Love from A Way Out x

Buy a Heart and Change a Life

Like ethical, meaningful, life-changing gifts?

Then check out these beautiful sterling silver pendants for sale from A Way Out, designed by jewellery designer Four Beautiful Keys. 

Aren't they beautiful?

Made by hand, each one is completely unique and is available with or without a white water pearl. They come beautifully presented in a gift box with a print of the verse that inspired their creation.

They make brilliant presents for mums, sisters, daughters, friends or yourself!

Each necklace costs £27 and 50% of this goes straight into the life-changing work of A Way Out.

If you would like to purchase a necklace then you can buy via Paypal at the Four Beautiful Keys website or you can arrange to pay directly to A Way Out by popping by to see us in person or sending us an email at info@awayout.co.uk.

We Love To Shout About What We're Up To!

This is the fundraising board in our office:

We like to be able to let everyone else in the office know what we're up to and what they can get involved in!  This is right in the middle of the building and so we all pass it every day whilst going about our work.

We think that it's so important to honour those who support us and so we have a little section of thank yous, for those who give to A Way Out, who have taken part in an event or volunteered with us. We also have newspaper cuttings and photos from events as well as prayer requests and an update on how much we've raised.

It's great as well when we have visitors here as they can see at a glance what we've been up to.

These are the events that are coming up next: a Charity Fashion Show at Teesside Uni, Bag Packs at Asda and Morrisons, Total Warrior in the Lake District and Afternoon Tea at Crathorne Hall. And we also have places for bungee jumpers at the Transporter Bridge! What takes your fancy?

I came in this morning to discover that another big black board has been put up for the projects team to do something similar. At the moment there are photos and posters scattered around the building but it's going to be even better to see everything at a glance and right next to the fundraising board too. We wouldn't be running any of these events if we weren't supporting the really inspiring, creative and life-changing work that our project workers do. Having this information side by side seems really appropriate :)

Why not pop by and see this sometime?

Love from A Way Out x

Why wouldn't you want to leap off a bridge for charity?!

The Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough is a local landmark, made famous by Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, The Fast Show and of course, Billy Elliot. It was only a matter of time before the fundraising team at A Way Out decided it would be a good idea to give people the opportunity to dangle below it from a length of elastic tied round their ankles. Who wouldn't be game?

All our planning came together last Sunday afternoon when Sarah Jane, our Community Fundraiser brought together a team of twenty odd mad fundraisers to take the plunge.

Everyone who came jumped or abseiled and by all accounts it was a really fun, adrenalin filled day! Participants also got a free t-shirt and were greeted with hot chocolate as they came back down.

Here are a few of the pics...

Stuart taking the leap:

Left to right: Tom Metcalfe, Beth Collins and Stuart Olsen (twice!)

If you think this looks like fun then you can sign up now for our next day of bungee jumps and abseils, same time, same place, Sunday 15th July. Full details are now available on our website and you can download booking forms there or telephone 01642 655071 for more information.

We'll see you at the next one!

Love from A Way Out x

Calling All Consumers of Tea and Cake, Total Warriors and Fashionistas!

We've been working on our events plan this week and we have so many exciting things to get involved in. It's a busy year and it all kicks off with our Transporter Bridge Bungee Jump and Abseil this Sunday and we can't wait! (We'll be posting pictures/ videos next week.)

But if you haven't got involved this time then there are still plenty of events coming up.

After much anticipation Rags and Muffins is coming to Durham! We've been busy collecting clothes and we're selling them all off for anything from £2 to £15. Come and check it out, but we recommend arriving early to grab the best bargains!

 Afternoon Tea at Crathorne Hall. We are hosting a beautiful Afternoon Tea at Crathorne Hall. There will also be a flower arranging demonstration and stalls selling gifts and homemade goodies, perfect for a Mother's Day or birthday present! This is a fantastic opportunity to make some new friends and to hear a bit more about A Way Out and the work we are involved in. We're hoping to have more of these events throughout the year that provide an opportunity to make new friends, learn about local projects and businesses and of course enjoy good food!

Total Warrior is back and sign up has begun! We already have seven people on board and ready to start training so we've nearly doubled last year's team! This is not for the faint-hearted but with five months to go you have plenty of time to get ready for the challenge.
To find out more about what you may be letting yourself in for have a look at the Total warrior website here. If you consider yourself a thrill-seeker then this is almost certainly the event for you!

If you are interested in any of these events or want to know about other opportunities to support A Way Out, then visit our website.

Love from A Way Out x

Photos from the annual A Way Out Ball!

Here are the much awaited photos from the our Black and White Winter Ball last Saturday! It was such a spectacular evening and we're so grateful to everyone who worked so hard to make it a success and for our supporters' generosity on the night.

The Ball was all about celebrating the life-changing work carried out by A Way Out in Teesside. Our black and white theme wasn't just for aesthetic purposes (although I'm sure you'll agree that the room looked fantastic!) but symbolised the journey our clients take as they find a way out of challenging circumstances.

Karen Heritage Studio Ltd choreographed a fantastic performance that told the story of those we work with as they move from a place of darkness to a place of light and hope. (The video of this will be uploaded once it is edited!) And an audio clip produced by James Mountford from BBC Tees which was played on the night will also be available to hear soon. It really is worth a listen.

But for now, you can check out the photos:

 Thank you so much to everyone who attended, helped and supported us. You helped make this night one that will be remembered for a long time.

Love from A Way Out x