Charlene Stepney still thinks a couple of French-speaking woman who got here to her salon years ago, brought along by a person who spoke on her behalf and watched her closely during her hair appointment.
“Because I was speaking French and it was weird, I started asking her questions,” Stepney said Thursday evening at her business, the Stepney Institute of Esthetics & Wellness in Homewood. “I asked her: Was that her husband? and she said, “No, it wasn't.” Then I asked her, was she safe? And she didn’t answer.”
Stepney said she believed the girl was a victim of human trafficking but didn't know easy methods to help her on the time.
“I still feel to this day that I let them down,” Stepney said.
Estheticians like Stepney are prepared to see clients from a big selection of backgrounds and life experiences, which might include survivors of abuse. In 2019, the law made it mandatory for all licensed beauty professionals to receive training on easy methods to handle difficult conversations and recognize signs of domestic violence and sexual assault.
On Thursday, representatives from the Crisis Center for South Suburbia offered training and perspectives during a session on the Stepney Institute. It was one in every of the primary of many offered to salon professionals of their schools and workplaces throughout October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month. While the middle provides freed from charge Training Visiting salons and cosmetology schools like Stepney's all year long, Chris Alcorn Catena, director of support services for the Crisis Center, hopes to focus on resources for all cosmetologists within the South and Southwest suburbs who need to pursue further training requirement for license renewal.
“The reason it's so important to us is, quite honestly, because estheticians have a unique approach,” Alcorn Catena said. “A beautician is one of the few professionals who can touch you… My hairdresser will move the hair from the back of my neck. If there are bruises, they will see them.”
At Thursday's session on the Stepney Institute, the importance of addressing or responding to a client who’s showing signs of abuse was not lost on students. Crisis Center Community Education and Outreach Coordinator Tracy Curtis, herself a domestic violence survivor, delivered the training and emphasized the importance of providing support and resources for many who could also be in dangerous relationships.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 41% of girls and 26% of men have experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime.
“It’s our responsibility to help,” Curtis said during Thursday’s practice. “It really is, because it affects us all. I was the one victim where my friend said, ‘I don’t want to get involved.’ So I don’t want to make someone feel so uncomfortable that they don’t get involved because they need the support.”
Curtis said anyone unsure about easy methods to support someone experiencing domestic violence can contact the crisis center's 24/7 hotline at 708-429-7233.
After the two-hour training, Stepney Institute student Tymeeka Fairfax said she was excited to learn the training was mandatory for licensing and thought she could apply what she learned outside of her work in the sweetness industry. She said that as a volunteer mentor to young girls, she recognized the importance of talking about healthy relationships early on and that the training provided latest skills for initiating and leading conversations about intimate relationships.
“Before I came to this class, I had a session with a group of girls who were talking about dating, and the conversations were all about 'I love him and he loves me,'” Fairfax said. “And I asked: What is love? Love language is one thing that should be transparent because if you know how to love someone, you can kind of take into account, okay, this is abuse and this is love – differentiate the two.”
But the legal requirement to train beauty professionals in domestic violence is met with some resistance. Stepney said since the mandate went into effect, she has questioned why the state has put the majority-female industry in charge of responding to a predominantly male-driven problem.
“I still often wonder why we were chosen,” Stepney said. “How much help are we really going to be?” The thing that never really gets talked about is how a lot of us find ourselves in abusive situations.”
Stepney said she hopes that in the longer term, estheticians shall be given more tools to guard themselves while continuing to support their clients and colleagues.
“As time goes on, hopefully the conversations will stay current and allow us to do more training,” she said.
Originally published:
image credit : www.mercurynews.com