Singing From the Heart

Song writing doesn't come naturally to most of us, but to some of the women from our womens drop-in project, it seems to be a gift!

It has also led them to an exciting few weeks; being on the radio, meeting one of the biggest boy bands from the UK (!), and growing in creativity.

Music helps us to express our emotions. Gifted songwriters often battle through difficult topics and heartbreaking lyrics and effectively get a message across. Liam, one of our community workers here and a talented songwriter and musician himself worked with the Recovery project, a part of our Heart2Change program to encourage creativity in songwriting. He's written a few words about the journey these women have been on...

"In August I started to get involved in the women’s group ran by Iona, and I was asked to do a song writing day with the girls. At first it seemed like it was going to be a struggle for the girls to have confidence in being involved, but within a few minutes we started to put a song together! The song writing only went on for half an hour but at the end the half an hour we had a full song written by the girls. The song was about how they were feeling before they found someone and somewhere they could go to and expressed their true feelings in this song. After this we started to get very excited that the girls had come up with something so amazing and decided we would try our best to get this recorded as the girls said nothing they do goes anywhere.
  After speaking to another charity who have a recording studio and vocal coaches, we decided that we could work with them to make this possible Over the weeks that followed, we had a vocal coach come over to help the girls with the song and this came from the recording studio. The girls started to get excited as we put a date in for recording. 
  This then led to the girls meeting JLS! (YES, they got to meet JLS!)

JLS meeting the girls

Performing the Song to JLS

Marvin gets acquainted with the AWO family!

They performed their song to JLS, giving them background on why they made this song. They then got to meet them in VIP at TFM Radio where JLS were about to go on the Radio. Marvin from JLS asked Jessie our CEO if she could give him the finished copy when the girls finish recording, praising the song and getting pictures with the girls and signing merchandise.

A Way Out meet JLS

This was a big boost to the girls confidence and made them really happy, this means so much to these girls as it is a step forward in their lives and something that they have never had the opportunity to do. After JLS left, the radio station asked us to do an interview and perform the song live on the radio as part of the story of how the girls and us got to meet JLS and what the story behind the girls lives and the song was about."

Performing the song to TFM radio

Big thanks to JLS and TFM radio who were both so encouraging and supportive when we met them, very welcoming and helpful. Thank you!

We'll leave you with a few lines from their amazing song; 'Everyday Things':

"I was feeling trapped, I didn't care about nowt

Then all of a sudden I found A Way Out

Out in the cold a whisper became a shout

I never looked back or gave a second doubt

I changed my life

It helped me see the person I could really be

This is me

Who could you be?"

Love from A Way Out x

Many thanks to Anthony Preece for the images in this blog post.

Heart2Change Graduation

Our Heart2Change project was launched last Autumn with five young women as a part of the recovery work we do. The aim of the project is to support 16-24 year old-women who have been a part of A WAY OUT for some time, and are committed to working on life skills and development. You can find out more about what the weekly program looked like from our blog post in January; Changing Hearts Changing Lives.

We reached the end of the program this Summer, and all five young women who began the course in November had extremely positive outcomes. Three young women saw the course right through and graduated from the program this Summer. During the course, one young woman decided to return to her college course, so didn't fully complete the program, but found renewed motivation from the program to continue learning and developing there. Another young woman was offered an apprenticeship which she decided to pursue, and we supported her in that decision.

The Heart2Change graduates, the Mayor of Stockton and A WAY OUT Staff

Two weeks ago we had a celebratory evening event - the Heart2Change Graduation - to celebrate all that these five young women achieved. We dressed up in suits and cocktail dresses and spent the evening in the beautiful Crathorne Hall in Yarm where we shared a delicious meal and excitement about all these girls have achieved and could achieve in the future.

The Mayor of Stockton came to our event too! She is a great support of our charity, naming us one of her charities of the year.

We ate dinner and had speeches, and then the young women received their awards!

They all received a bouquet of flowers, a certificate and an engraved vase.

As you can see, we had a lovely time!

It's been so important to recognise the significance of the Heart2Change program in the lives of the five young women we mentioned. Their commitment to development has been truly inspiring and we are so pleased for them and all they have achieved!

We want to leave you with Danni's Story...

Danni was referred to us by her college as she was homeless and having a really hard time. She was struggling to attend college and was experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Danni wanted to apply for Heart 2 Change to address these issues as well as to gain emotional support. Danni is now doing really well; family relationships have built back up and she finished her college course. She intends to go back to college next year to study social sciences in order to prepare her for university where she would like to study nursing.

This is Love, Hope and Freedom in action!

We are looking forward to the project starting again in the Autumn. Here's to more breakthroughs!

Love from A WAY OUT x

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

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