A new training program for barbers is keeping kids off the streets in Harlem. The teenagers are learning a career -- and life lessons, too. TVJessi shows us how a nonprofit is joining forces with police.
For 100 young men and women from Harlem, buzzing means business in the new home of the Big Russ barber and workforce training program on West 135th Street. At its helm is longtime master barber Russell"Big Russ" Smith, owner of eight local businesses.
His pilot program graduated 24 apprentice barbers earlier this year; four of them now work for Smith full-time as they earn their licenses, bringing along the lessons they learned. Smith sets out to show just how lucrative legitimate business can be, focusing his efforts on teens already exposed to illegal means of success.Considered a"credible messenger," Smith embraces his role as a bridge between police and kids in the neighborhood, serving as vice president on the precinct's community council, which stands just across the street.
In fact, the city chipped in to pay for this program through the insistence of Jackie Rowe-Adams. She lost two children before starting the nonprofit Harlem Mothers & Fathers Stop Another Violent End in 2006.Her determination to save Harlem's families from the same future grows stronger each day.
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