PENNSYLVANIA Abuse awareness program to include state salons soon

Salon workers have been enlisted to help trim domestic violence.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- They often find themselves turning to salons to dry away tears, cover patches of torn-out hair, hide black eyes and repair broken finger nails.
Besides offering a little glamor and gossip, the chairs in beauty salons are the only places many battered women feel safe because of the bond with their beauticians.
"You sit with clients who you see every other week and you get intimate with them. "There have been situations where clients would talk about their problems, and you knew it was abuse. You look back and think, 'I didn't know what to do,'" said Marlene Bridge, owner of Elegant Distributing, a suburban beauty supply business, and the owner of a nail salon for the past 12 years.
Bridge, the vice president of the National Cosmetology Association, and her colleagues across Pennsylvania soon may know what to do. A new program coming to the state trains people who work in salons to listen and offer help to clients who reveal they are in abusive relationships, the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette reported in Sunday editions.
'Cut It Out'
Pennsylvania this year is slated to join about a dozen states in the "Cut It Out" program, funded by the National Cosmetology Association, Clairol and Southern Living. The program was founded in Birmingham, Ala., in 2002 and spread to more than 500 salons there. Ohio joined the program last year, and South Carolina joined last month.
According to the nonprofit organization Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, on any given day there are about 60,000 people across the state with court orders protecting them from abuse. Last year, 124 people died in homicides stemming from domestic violence, including 31 in murder-suicides. And more than 96,000 people sought emergency shelter or other services from domestic violence programs, according to coalition officials.
"Cut It Out" organizers don't yet know when the program will begin in Pennsylvania or how many salons will take part, said Ann Higby, a spokeswoman for the National Cosmetology Association.
Program features
Under the program, salons get posters, informational cards and other materials to place in discreet places. The materials provide information and a telephone number for the National Domestic Violence hot line.
Salon workers are also offered two-hour training sessions with victims' advocates or counselors to help them recognize the sometimes subtle signs of abuse.
"Does the client's cell phone ring and ring when they're in the chair? Does their boyfriend call [the salon] to check on them? We give [salon workers] the confidence to recognize a pattern [of abuse] when they see it," Higby said.
The training includes role-playing, during which workers talk with pretend clients and decide how best to help while trainers watch and evaluate their approaches. The training cautions workers that they shouldn't take matters into their own hands.