A BOOST in funding will help a Teesside charity to offer sex workers ‘a way out’.

A project supporting vulnerable women looking to escape the sex industry will benefit from a £75,000 grant from Lloyds Bank.

Stockton charity A Way Out helps women who have been involved with sex work to improve their lives via a combination of counselling, support and training opportunities.

The grant will go towards the organisation’s Liberty Project, which focuses on women conducting street sex work, and will see drop in services across the Teesside area expanded.

A spokeswoman for A Way Out said the money would allow staff to support women whose plight often goes unnoticed, adding: “Women involved in street sex work often remain hidden and hard to support and many suffer from poor physical, mental and sexual health.

“A Way Out’s unique approach helps to address the women’s immediate needs as well as the root causes which led them to life on the streets in the first place.

The grant represents Lloyds Bank’s continued investment in the project, which was awarded a £77,900 cash injection in 2015.

The charity’s CEO, Sarah McManus, said the funding helped her team to “reach out, connect and engage those that are being harmed, abused and exploited, empowering them to reach their full potential and be safe”.

She said: “We are thrilled and very much appreciate the funding and support that the Lloyds Bank Foundation have given to us.

“The Foundation provides invaluable funding for core activities that supports our vital and essential service delivery to some of our most marginalised, complex and vulnerable clients.

“They are one of the very few that provide this type of support which is necessary and essential to the ongoing sustainability and delivery of our charitable objects and purpose.”

Ms McManus said that the funding made a huge difference amidst a challenging external financial landscape and thanked Lloyds for “helping to bring about a better tomorrow”.

Paul Streets, chief executive of the Lloyds Bank Foundation, said it was important to support such charities in a time when cash-strapped councils across the country are struggling.

He said: “As our latest research has shown, there is a quiet crisis facing local authorities. Ever-tighter budgets mean vulnerable people have to rely on the support of local charities like A Way Out.

“They’re not just a ‘nice to have’ – their work is making a vital difference, day in, day out to people’s lives.”

The Foundation supports small charities that help people overcome complex social issues.

For support or information about A Way Out, visit awayout.co.uk