HAIR CAFE SALON: HAIR STYLISTS AND BARBERS TEAM UP FOR HAIR TOGETHER TO HELP TEENS STAY IN SCHOOL AND LEARN SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE. Young people are at risk of leaving school early with low prospect opportunities and grooming into the drug industry locally. Hair Together, in support of Setanta BEST programme, is a community based programme aimed at 14 to 17 year olds from the Ballymun area to provide these teens with hairdressing and barbering skills. The programme is an initiative of Setanta GAA Club and Poppintree Youth Project, working together in the community to give young people a safer transition to adulthood. It aims to teach teens soft skills that can help them develop further into the hair and barbering industry as a career choice. The children involved with Setanta GAA Club and Poppintree Youth Project engage on a weekly basis and Hair Together will engage with them to further develop their skills. Studies have shown that this age group is when young people develop strong relationship with positive
Tony O’Reilly from The Kube and Eileen McHugh from The Hair Cafe Salon Smithfield have voluntarily ran two similar evenings in the past, which has received positive feedback from participants and their parents. The upcoming programme will work with 10 teens over 10 sessions and, due to high demand, future programmes will accommodate more participants. The programme is about the skills these teens will learn. It’s also about community and working together to keep these skills in the local area. Mixing students from Dublin City University and Dublin Institute of Technology with the teens involved has proven to be of a positive influence and may help these teens see the advantages of third level education. Eileen McHugh said: ‘This programme is really close to my heart as I grew up in the same area with similar challenges. My hope is that by participating in this program these teenagers will have a chance to experience something new, have a safe place to explore their creativity and do it together with other peers that they wouldn’t usually mix with. It’s only through experiences like this that we find our talents and passion, when I found mine it opened so many new doors.’
