Charlene Stepney nonetheless thinks a few French-speaking girl who got here into her salon years in the past, introduced by a person who talked on her behalf and watched her carefully at some stage in her hair appointment.
“Because I spoke French, and it was strange, I started asking her questions,” Stepney stated Thursday evening at her enterprise, Stepney Institute of Esthetics & Wellness in Homewood. “I asked her, was that her husband? and she said, ‘No, it was not.’ Then I asked her, was she safe? And she would not respond.”
Stepney stated she believes the girl was being trafficked, however on the time she didn’t know the right way to assist her.
“I just feel to this day like I let her down,” Stepney stated.
Estheticians similar to Stepney are set as much as encounter shoppers with all kinds of backgrounds and life experiences, which can embody survivors of abuse. In 2019, coaching on the right way to deal with troublesome conversations and acknowledge indicators of home violence and sexual assault turned required by state legislation for all licensed magnificence professionals.
On Thursday, representatives from the Disaster Heart for South Suburbia supplied coaching and perspective throughout a session on the Stepney Institute. It was one of many first of many to be supplied to salon professionals at their faculties and workplaces all through October, which is Home Violence Consciousness Month. Whereas the middle offers free coaching all yr at salons and cosmetology faculties like Stepney’s, Disaster Heart director of assist companies Chris Alcorn Catena hopes to highlight assets for all south and southwest suburban cosmetologists seeking to fulfill their Persevering with Training requirement for license renewal.
“The reason that it’s so important to us, quite honestly, is that cosmetologists have a unique access,” Alcorn Catena stated. “A cosmetologist is one of the few professionals that can touch you … My stylist is going to brush the hair away from my neck. If there are bruises, they’re going to see them.”
The stakes of initiating or responding to a shopper who’s exhibiting indicators of abuse weren’t misplaced on college students at Thursday’s session on the Stepney Institute Thursday. Tracy Curtis, group training and outreach coordinator on the Disaster Heart, herself is a survivor of home abuse, delivered the coaching, emphasizing the significance of providing assist and offering assets to those that could also be in harmful relationships.
In response to the federal Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, roughly 41% of girls and 26% of males have skilled contact sexual violence, bodily violence or stalking by an intimate companion throughout their lifetime.
“It’s all of our responsibilities to help,” Curtis stated throughout Thursday’s coaching. “It really is, because it does impact us all. I was that one victim where my friend said, ‘I don’t want to get involved.’ So I don’t want anyone to feel so uncomfortable that they won’t get involved, because they do need the support.”
Curtis stated anybody who’s not sure about the right way to assist somebody experiencing home abuse can attain out to the Disaster Heart’s 24/7 hotline at 708-429-7233.
Pamphlets offered by the Disaster Heart for South Suburbia sit on a desk throughout a coaching session on the Stepney Institute of Esthetics & Wellness in Homewood. Underneath Illinois legislation, the preliminary renewal of a cosmetologist’s, esthetician’s, nail technician’s or hair braider’s license requires one hour of home violence and sexual assault consciousness training. (Addison Annis/Chicago Tribune)
“Before I came to this class, I had a session with a group of girls talking about dating, and the conversations were all, ‘I love him and he loves me.’” Fairfax stated. “And I asked, what is love? Love language is a thing that should be transparent, because if you know how to love somebody then you can kind of take into account, okay, this is what abuse is and this is what love is — differentiate the two.”
However focusing on magnificence professionals with the authorized requirement for home violence coaching has met some resistance. Stepney stated because the mandate went into impact, she has questioned why the state positioned accountability on the majority-female business to reply to a largely male-driven challenge.
“There’s still a lot of times where I wonder why we were chosen,” Stepney stated. “How much help are we really going to be? The thing that is never really talked about, that needs to be, is how many of us are in abusive situations ourselves.”
Stepney stated she hopes sooner or later cosmetologists are given extra instruments to guard themselves whereas persevering with to assist their shoppers and colleagues.
“As time goes on, hopefully the conversations stay current and they can give us more training,” she stated.
In case you or somebody is experiencing home violence, you’ll be able to attain the nationwide hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
Initially Printed: October 10, 2024 at 11:22 a.m.
