How We Started

A WAY OUT was founded by a group of women who had seen the devestating affect that drugs were having in their local community and were empassioned to do something about it.

Jessie Joe Jacobs was one of those women.  Whilst she was volunteering at The Oakwood Centre, in Eaglescliffe, now known as the Tees Valley Community Church she would help out on a church outreach bus which acted as a drop-in service for youngsters facing problems such as drugs and prostitution.  There were children as young as 13 years old that were coming on the bus addicted to heroin and working in prostitution.

Jessie also helped out at a church youth group, and it was whilst delivering a programme of fun and exciting activities to this other group of young people, who were the same age as the children from the bus, that Jessie describes her heart being broken. The young people in the youth group were happy, in school, enjoying life, having a great time, and playing pool, but just a few miles down the road a 15 year old child was selling her body for drugs.

The devastatingly dramatic difference in the lives of two different groups of children living in the same town motivated Jessie to get involved with the group that later became A WAY OUT.  But that was not the only motivation.  Growing up in Stockton Jessie saw first the devastating effects drugs were having on the people she had grown up with.  Jessie had studied pharmacology at Leeds University.  As part of her degree she produced a drugs prevention program aimed at preventing young people from going on to drugs and had been interested to see it used more locally.

At the time of volunteering at the church, Jessie was studying for a Masters Degree in Management at Durham University, and following her ambition to help create a new project to prevent drug use, Jessie produced a dissertation about New Venture Creation within the Voluntary Sector.  Using her resources Jessie set about researching how to set up a voluntary organisation.

The excellent business principles learned through her MA are still incorporated into A WAY OUT's management processes, principles, such as quality assurance, HR management, governance, finance and Funding.

The group did a lot of research before starting the project and found that there were two main gaps.  These were targeted prevention for vulnerable young people, and services specifically for women.

In June 2002, with the help of other committed individuals, the group had their first meeting and in response to the need, began A WAY OUT - Addicted Women and Youth Outreach.  

Using research and a drugs programme she had worked on during a BSc degree in pharmacology, Jessie and her team set up a small outreach programme at the Port Clarence Community Centre, in Stockton, which would run one day a week.

Shortly afterwards, they managed to secure office premises in George Street, Thornaby, which was also in Stockton's red light area.  They ran it as a drop-in centre with about 12 volunteers and got around 20 visits a night.

After growing out of the Thornaby premises, A Way Out moved to its second home, in Stockton.

"We go to the hardest-to-reach people in the hardest places, and look for people who need particular support."

"We contune to grow and have seen amazing things achieved over the last 7 years."