A Way Out Design Hub

Over the last few weeks, the girls taking part in our Heart2Change program have been part of a very exciting set of workshops run by the wonderful Lucy from Design Hub Artworks which has formed part of the life skills component of their course.

Although I have mainly just seen Lucy hanging around at the photocopier, she has in fact been teaching our service users how to design and make their own bags and t-shirts. Starting with a hand-drawn design, these were then scanned in Photoshop where they were edited and colour was added. The designs were then printed out onto transfer sheets which could be applied to bags or tops.

This is such an amazing way to teach the girls new skills, help them to grow in confidence and spend time together as a group. And as you can see the results are beautiful:

And not only have the girls been making their own items but they are now being sold across Teesside! A couple of the girls went to the Fashion Show held on Saturday night to sell their products and they are planning to get to a craft fair soon. But if you are interested in purchasing one of these limited edition items then don't hesitate to get in touch! (All profit goes to supporting the work of A Way Out.)

Love from A Way Out x

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

Home-made Sandwiches Delivered to Your Door

Our Cave Cafe has been up and running for a couple of years now and our new Cafe Manager has given the the place a brand new lease of life.

The vision of the cafe is to provide a place of safety and refuge where at-risk women and young people can just come and be. This is somewhere where people can have a meal, a chat and hang out with friends. Every Wednesday afternoon there is a hot meal provided for £2 such as curry and rice or shepherds pie.

The Cave is also a venue for group activities such as our annual Christmas meals, Thursday late-night drop-in and youth groups.

But the Cave Cafe isn't just for those who access our services. It's open to anyone and everyone who'd like to drop by for a home-made baguette, a slice of freshly baked brownie or a nice warming drink. We also have a sandwich delivery service that visits local businesses with our tasty produce.

Are you interested? Give us a call on 01642 655071 to arrange a delivery.

Love from A Way Out x

Changing Hearts, Changing Lives

Heart 2 Change is a really exciting project that began in November as part of the Recovery Programme at A Way Out. The idea is to support 16-24 year old women who have been coming to A Way Out groups for a little while and who are committed to working further on life skills and personal development.

A typical week could look a bit like this:

Monday- Sports and Fitness e.g. spinning, netball, pilates...

Tuesday- Therapeutic Group Sessions to build confidence and self-esteem

Wednesday- Community Drop-In and Celebrate Recovery, a Christian recovery program (optional)

Thursday- Life Skills e.g. cooking, budgeting, numeracy

Friday- Voluntary placement

In addition to this, the girls on the Heart 2 Change program are each allocated a mentor who meets with them on a weekly basis in 121 sessions to be an extra support and provide an opportunity to explore any practical support needed while on the course.

This program is a fantastic course and is running really well so far. All of the girls have reduced their alcohol consumption since November and as you will know from our previous blogs, alcohol abuse is a serious problem in the North-East and amongst many of our clients. We're excited to see where this program goes in the future!

Obviously there are costs attached to running a project such as this and if you felt you could support Heart 2 Change is any way, no matter how small, we'd be really grateful. It costs £100 per girl per week to run the program and we currently have five young women enrolled. If you are interested in giving anything towards this cost then you can find out details of how to give on our website.

Love from A Way Out x

"The True Price of Alcohol"

Who else watched Inside Out North East and Cumbria on Monday night? 

It was a fascinating and worrying insight into the binge drinking culture of the North-East and the impact that this has on our health, the health of those around us and the strain it puts on the NHS. These are some of the scary statistics to come out of the program:

If you get a chance to watch it, you can follow the link to iplayer here but it will only to available until 8pm on Monday 16th January.

The program started off by focussing on the NHS and the way that its service is compromised by the number of alcohol-related incidents it has to deal with every year. It also discussed the issue of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), a little know but serious condition which can cause a child to be born with life-long brain damage if the mother has been drinking whilst pregnant. Finally, Mike Parr from BBC Radio Tees undertook a one month fast from his usual 37 units of alcohol a week and went teetotal for the whole of December. When he began drinking again he found that his craving from alcohol had reduced and he was able to reduce his general intake per week.

There is so much more that I could say but the best thing is probably for you to watch this yourselves. It's only 30 minutes long and well worth it if you are concerned about the local culture of binge drinking, if you know someone who struggles to drink safely or if you yourself find this a difficulty.

This all seems like a lot of bad news but there is a way forward! A Way Out has been aware of this issue for a long time. We work with clients on a daily basis who struggle with binge drinking and we see complete transformation in their lives. At the end of November we employed a new member of staff whose role is to reach and support young women who are struggling to control their drinking habits. Partnering with local specialist organisations we provide the support needed to help these young women to reach their goals of safe, healthy and whole lives for themselves and their families.

If you would like to do something to help then there are so many ways in which you can support A Way Out so we can continue to transform Teesside. To find out more, visit our website.

Love from A Way Out x

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

I read on Twitter this morning:

"Do not be afraid" appears in the bible 366 times - once for every day of the year (including leap years!)*

At A Way Out we don't believe that anyone should need to fear for their lives, for their health, for their children, for their safety, for their future...

Especially as we are looking forward to Christmas these fears seem to come to the fore. Christmas is traditionally a time of hope, joy, peace and love but all too often this is not the case. We will be keeping our offices open across the festive period to make sure that there is always a place to go.

We are running a whole range of activities in the next couple weeks to make sure that this is a really special time for people, a time to celebrate and have fun. For a low-down on what our girls group is going to be doing you can have a read of our latest newsletter here.

Our preventions team are also busy planning the week before Christmas which will be crammed full of activities. It's shaping up to be a great week:

Monday- bag packing at Morrissons supermarket to raise awareness and funds for A Way Out.

Tuesday- a trip to see the musical Oliver! at the Arc, Stockton.

Wednesday- Giant Christmas movie afternoon

Thursday- Christmas party which includes food, grafitti workshops, arts and crafts, games, prizes and maybe even a visit from Santa!

We know that spending quality time with vulnerable and at risk women and young people is so important and A Way Out can make all the difference in a young person's life. These are some of the things our project workers have been told this week:

Hello, just sat here chilling a just want to say thank you 4 everything, just wanted to mgs u and let u no i look forward when we meet, thanks 4 everything  x x

I don't know where I would be in life now if it wasn't for you and all your hard work at away out! I really appreciate everything u have done for me and thanks for having confidence in me and in what I do and thanks so much for sending me the right way in life! You do so much for people most the time you don't relies you do it even the little things mean a lot to me so thank you so much just to say thanks xxxxxxxxx 

Thank you for working at away out and been there for me and my friends it means a lot to know we have people we can always talk too :) 

Wow. We're really excited about Christmas at the Gate. We'll be getting back to you to let you know how it's gone and to show you all the photos!

Love from A Way Out x

*tweet by @nickygumbel

Alcohol Awareness Week

Hospital admissions linked to alcohol use have more than doubled in the UK over the last 10 years to over 200, 000 last year and there has been a 20% increase in GP's making prescriptions for alcohol dependence in the last 4 years.

Around 95% of alcoholics die from their disease and approximately 26 years earlier than their normal life expectancy.

Drunk driving is responsible of approximately 50% of motorway deaths.

A study of 11 and 12 year old school kids showed that those who demonstarted an awareness of beer ads, held more positive beliefs about drinking and intended to drink more frequently when they grow up.

A Way Out exists to reach out to vulnerable and at risk women and young people which includes those who suffer from alcohol addiction and those at risk of alcoholism so these issues are high on our agenda. This week is Alcohol Awareness Week and so our project workers have been devoting themselves especially to raising awareness of the dangers of alcohol abuse in schools, colleges and at our own centre, The Gate.

Yesterday at The Gate during our Wednesday drop-in, rooms were set up with various activities around awareness of alcohol and how to drink safely and responsibly. There were alcohol worksheets and quizzes testing the girls' knowledge on alcohol consumption and safe habits as well as the chance to make their own non-alcoholic cocktails and our fantastic staff led discussions on ways of lowering levels and keeping safe when drinking e.g. going out with people you can trust, not mixing drinks and sexual health when out drinking.

Driving in beer goggles!

Mixing up some safe cocktails

For advice on safe drinking you might like to visit:

http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/
http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/
http://www.awayout.co.uk/how-we-can-help-you/

Love from A Way Out x

(Statistics taken from http://www.alcoholism-and-drug-addiction-help.com/alcoholism-statistics.html)

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