Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is partnering with the city to provide three youth mentorship programs, one of which involves free student haircuts.
It’s called the Stay Fresh Initiative.
The city will hire five licensed barbers and five licensed nail technicians to provide free, monthly services at Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools. It will be up to the principals to identify students to participate based on need. The appointments will take about 15 minutes and will happen during the school day.
At a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, the city’s Youth Violence Prevention Manager Bryce Sherman explained the value of the program.
“We're just bringing in barbers that can come cut these kids' hair, give them a fresh line-up, build their self-confidence, build their self-esteem, make them feel better about themselves, so they can perform better in the classroom,” he said.
This is one of three programs the city has agreed to pay for in the district in an effort to support students in a variety of ways.
Another program is called Chop it Up, which will involve city volunteers leading group discussions where students can talk about different issues in their lives. There will also be an eight-week after-school boxing program with a certified instructor.
The school board unanimously approved the memorandum of agreement with the city to implement these initiatives.
Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.