A Way Out is an organisation of excellence, tackling and preventing exploitation of vulnerability of women and young people.
We are an outreach and prevention charity which aims to engage, empower and equip vulnerable and excluded women, families and young people to live lives free from harm, abuse and exploitation and to reduce life limiting choices and behaviour.
Our service users include women and young people with substance misuse problems, involved with sex work, homeless or living on the streets, often engaged in offending or victims of abuse.
We believe that everyone should be able to live the life they choose without experiencing or fearing abuse, harm and exploitation.
We prevent abuse, harm and exploitation by empowering women, families and young people to have control over their lives and by tackling the injustice and inequality that they experience.
What we expect from volunteers.
A Way Out’s successes are due to great teamwork. This includes our dedicated volunteers. Volunteering with A Way Out can be an extremely rewarding and also a challenging experience.
Role and Responsibilities of volunteers
- To be a reliable and consistent team member.
- To reliably fulfil agreed rota commitments – A Way Out relies critically upon the support of volunteers to deliver the services.
- To communicate in a timely fashion with the volunteer team.
- To attend and contribute to staff/volunteer briefings and de-briefings at the beginning and end of each session.
- To complete any required service/client monitoring paperwork.
- To adhere strictly to A Way Out policies and procedures.
- To attend periodical volunteer update briefings where possible and read and understand volunteer updates and briefings communicated by email.
Attitudes & Professional Conduct
- Show love, understanding and compassion at all times.
- Work within the boundaries set by A Way Out to keep clients, volunteers and staff safe.
- Always treat clients with respect and with a non-judgmental attitude.
- Team members must not use illegal drugs at any time, even outside of work.
- Adhere to the Safeguarding, Confidentiality and Professional Boundaries Policies.
Abilities
- Be able to remain calm in difficult situations.
- Be able to communicate with women and young people effectively.
A Way Out is a charity founded upon a Christian vision and the support and contributions, both financial and otherwise, of the local Church and Christian volunteers. A Way Out exists because it was driven by the faith, radical hope and sense of social justice of Christians and the local Church. We do not expect all staff and volunteers to subscribe to the Christian faith, but to understand and acknowledge the Christian values which are the heartbeat of A Way Out.
We continue to partner with the Christian community to support our work; we believe in the power of prayer and faith in our work amongst the most marginalised. Hope gives us a vision of a changed life. Faith helps us believe that is possible. We welcome staff, volunteers, supporters and service users from all faiths and denominations and those who are agnostic or atheist. We do not expect anyone at A Way Out to subscribe to the Christian faith, but to respect and understand the importance of our Christian values, as we do for others.
What do we mean by Christian values?
From its early beginnings the Church and later many Christian organisations have tried to reflect Jesus’ concern for the poor, marginalised and oppressed outworked through responding to the social and systemic injustice many experience, by having the values of love, compassion and truth at the heart of our strategic decision-making and operational practice.
We acknowledge that these values of Justice, Love, Compassion and Truth are not exclusively Christian values, although in the case of A Way Out they are the values demonstrated by Christ that we hold onto. Therefore, the way we recruit, work and deliver services as an organisation is inclusive and welcoming of any individual that identifies with those of other faiths or no faith, provided they are willing to respect that the founding Christian values of A Way Out remain.
Over time, we have developed into an organisation that is well respected nationally as being a strong advocate for social justice. A Way Out is committed to amplifying the voices of our service users, working closely with a range of multi-agency partners to enable systemic change.
Our Opportunities
The Liberty Project in A Way Out are currently recruiting female volunteers to work alongside staff and volunteers providing Evening Outreach to our clients who are on street sex workers or at risk of sexual exploitation.