A WAY OUT of addiction

A WAY OUT (Addicted Women And Youth OUTreach) is a voluntary Organisation formed in June 2002 as a community based response to the increasing problem of addiction and substance misuse.

History
The founder Jessie Joe Jacobs, a young person who growing up in Stockton saw the lives of some of her closest friends, destroyed by drug addiction came back to Stockton after completing her masters at Durham University with a vision for a new grassroots drugs work.
While studying for her first degree in pharmacology Jessie specialised in Drugs prevention, producing a drugs awareness teaching programme as part of her final thesis. This work has now been expanded upon and a similar programme is still used today by the organisation in their prevention based works.
From a needs analysis of the Stockton area it became apparent that there was a severe lack of prevention initiatives and grass roots projects.

Vision
The overall vision of WAY OUT is to see our community’s drugs problem eradicated.
‘W.A.Y Out’ exists to encourage, empower and sponsor women and Young people who are vulnerable, at risk or are experiencing problems of substance misuse; helping them to live transformed, drug free lives.

Values
Way OUT derives its inspiration and values from the Christian faith. These Christian values and beliefs provide the basis of our work. Sensitive to ethnic differences, our organisation is embracive of people from all faiths and backgrounds, regardless of race, religion, disability, ethnicity, economic status etc.