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: October 10, 2024 at 11:22 am

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – A smile crept onto Lando Norris' face through the post-race media sessions.

His first Formula 1 victory was a protracted time coming. He got here close a number of times, but was then thwarted by small mistakes, like in Qatar 2023, and things beyond his control, just like the rain and strategic decisions in Sochi 2021. He joined the Formula 1 starting grid with McLaren in 2019 because the Nineteenth-year-old, now in his sixth season and before the Grand Prix weekend in Miami, the Brit had secured a pole position and was on the rostrum 15 times and drove over 6,000 laps.

As each rider stopped for interviews on the media station, almost everyone touched on the identical point: It's time.

“Well done, Lando,” said Fernando Alonso. “First victory after so many podiums. I'm really joyful for him. Hopefully he remembers today – the primary of many victories.” The Aston Martin driver was not the only one to suggest that this would not be the final victory for the 24-year-old. Max Verstappen said: “I’m very happy for Lando. It had been foreseeable for a long time. And it won't be his last. He deserves it today.”

The victory came at a pivotal moment in the sport. In the last 28 Grands Prix, Red Bull has won all but two races: Singapore 2023 and Australia 2024, both won by Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz. Verstappen remained largely unchallenged and built up a pretty good lead race after race. But this weekend in Miami, McLaren took the chance to beat Red Bull in a head-to-head battle. When Norris passed Verstappen after the safety cars, it was important that fresh tires and clean air beat an incredibly fast car.

“He probably deserved a race win many, many years ago,” Mercedes’ George Russell said. “And I think for all the drivers in Formula 1, in this era of dominance by one team and one driver, it's always great to see someone get the chance to get a win.”

Norris began sixteenth finally yr's Miami GP and finished seventeenth for a struggling McLaren that turned its season around within the second half of 2023. Now he’s celebrating his first win in three years. Oscar Piastri said he was “very happy for (Norris) and for the whole team, and I think we deserve it. “Our path over the past 12 months has been towards this moment.”

Lewis Hamilton remembered his first F1 victory in 2007, which he also celebrated with McLaren. The team still has “a big part of my heart,” he said, and was happy to see them win again. The Woking-based team's last F1 victory came at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix for Daniel Ricciardo.

Before post-race interviews, drivers traditionally have a quick chat with their team and crew members pat them on the helmet or back. However, Norris jumped over the barrier for joy, and the McLaren crew members were equally happy to hug their new race winner. The emotions were overflowing.

A memory that can last a lifetime! #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/N1t0dc7orD

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) May 5, 2024

“I’m just really happy for Lando. “As much as we all want to beat each other and come out on top, it's always emotional to see so much emotion from one of our competitors,” said Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. “We all grew up together. I remember looking at Lando when he was still in KF3 and we all had the same dream of becoming Formula 1 drivers one day.”

Norris isn’t any stranger to hate, with memes and nicknames like “Lando No Wins” popping up on social media when people discuss his record. But the Brit says the words of those closest to him are more meaningful and thanked his competitors for his or her praise and support. In parc ferme and within the media area, various riders hugged Norris and congratulated him on a moment he’ll likely remember perpetually.

“When you put the helmet on and you hate them and you want to beat them and you don't care who's who, I've always had respect for the people I've raced against. So if someone shows up [to me]“Especially people who have achieved a lot, because it always means a little more,” said Norris. “So when Lewis, Fernando, Max, Charles, Carlos come up to you or people have good words for you, I really appreciate it. Because to these people it means something. Maybe from others, that's not the case.

“These people are the people who know what it takes to achieve things like this – the work, time and effort that goes into something like this.”

In 2023 410 people were murdered in Philadelphia – greater than 1 / 4 of them under 25 years of age. In addition to those that died, countless others lost family members and other people they relied on.

As a Social Scientist Anyone who studies different types of violence and the way they affect an individual's health knows that the violence is experienced by young people in Philadelphia it's about greater than shootings, murders and assaults. Social science knows many differing types of violence that transcend physical violence – for instance, poverty, racism, etc negative interactions with the police.

In addition, violence might be harmful to health even when the person is just not aware of it. For example, I once interviewed a young man from West Philadelphia and tracked his heart rate. When a shooting occurred outside his front room window, his heart rate suddenly rose from 51 beats per minute to 116. He had heard the gunshot, nevertheless it didn't trouble him. He became hardened to the violence that took place outside his door and was shocked to learn that his body had reacted so strongly.

In order to higher understand the connection between types of violence and their effects, I conducted an ethnographic study 12 young people between the ages of 16 and 21 who lived in various violent neighborhoods in Philadelphia. These included Kensington, Northeast, Germantown, Cobbs Creek and Belmont. The study ran from 2016 to 2018 and was recently published in peer review Journal of Youth Research. The names utilized in this text are pseudonyms to guard the identities of the young individuals who contributed to my research.

I spent a month with each youth. I walked with them through their neighborhood, interviewed them about their family history, and measured their heart rates as they went about their day. They wore wristband health monitors and a separate GPS tracker for 4 days. At the tip of every day, I sat with them and checked their heart rate data and whereabouts.

I learned that where an adolescent lives, the societal messages they absorb and the assorted types of violence they experience can have a profound impact on their physical and mental health.

“No shade, no trees, no big parks”

The young people I worked with understood the dearth of investment of their neighborhoods as an indication that those in power didn't care about them, their families, or their communities. They talked about it Closure of public schoolsThe limited access to libraries and lack of trees or green space. As Desmond, 21, walked with me through her Cobbs Creek neighborhood, she said, “Who wants to live here? There is no shade, no trees, no big parks.”

They also saw how gentrification — the method by which wealthier individuals and investments push out local businesses and residents — was changing their neighborhoods. Kalia, who spent her life in “Little Puerto Rico,” as she called her neighborhood in Kensington, told me what she considered wealthier people moving in.

“Remember how I said that we were loud and that we were all close to one another and that we were all just hanging out and stuff? And they aren’t like that. They're quiet and have all their money, you recognize?” she said. “So I feel like they're trying to alter not only the neighborhood, but just the way in which people live.”

“But I can’t blame them.”

Working with the five young black men within the study, I learned how their on a regular basis interactions with police affected their self-esteem. They told stories of police slamming them against a wall, knocking food out of their hands, refusing to imagine that they had no criminal record, or chasing them out of parks.

In sharing these interactions, it became clear that several of the young men had internalized this false messages from society and culture that black men commit more crimes and act more aggressively than white people. Kareem, from West Philadelphia, summarized his thoughts: “If you were a criminal, you're probably going to be treated a certain way. But since almost every black person is involved in almost everything, they think of us all as criminals. I can’t blame them though.”

Future, of Southwest Philadelphia, had a very tense interaction with police and felt, as he said, “hyped up” during a job interview. His heart rate rose from 60 to 106 beats per minute as police approached, then rose to 130 beats per minute inside 10 minutes. It remained elevated for half-hour.

On the strategy to our interview, Future told me, he stopped to spend the last of his money on a breakfast sandwich and a coffee. Shortly afterwards, a police officer knocked the sandwich out of his hand, pushed him against a wall and handcuffed him. “They thought I had drugs, weed and pills on me, and then I thought, 'I have nothing,'” he said. They asked him for his ID, to which he replied, “Why did you put me in handcuffs?” Then they threatened to take him to the station.

“Listen, I’m obedient,” Future told officers, explaining that he was on probation. After police “threw” him into the back seat of the automobile, a neighbor began filming the incident and asked police what that they had done. Future said the younger officer reached for his gun while his partner “tried to get me to f*** my hood.”

The purpose of the police encounter was apparently to realize details about what was happening within the neighborhood. The young men I spoke to said they often had similar experiences.

“It’s a deeply emotional ride”

Whether through experiencing police brutality, the kid welfare system, homelessness, or past trauma, each of the young people I worked with struggled with the impact of interpersonal, structurally And symbolic violence in other ways. Sometimes this manifested itself of their mental health and manifested itself in eating disorders, severe anxiety or bouts of depression.

Conner, a young black man living in Belmont, suffered from severe anxiety that prevented him from leaving his home at times. His pulse quickened on public transportation, sometimes reaching 150 beats per minute, because he feared that neighborhood disputes would spill over onto the bus. He went to the gym late at night to avoid fights and talked in regards to the friends he had lost to gun violence. On his feelings about these losses, he said, “It's a deep emotional journey, but I mean, most of us, people of color, are used to something like this happening.”

For others, their physical health also suffered. For example, a young woman had experienced severe violence in her home during her childhood and was involved in child welfare as each a toddler and a mother. She struggled with hypertension, severe headaches, obesity and anxiety. She complained that accessing medical care was currently out of reach for her, particularly when it got here to her mental health. Every time she contacted a therapist, she said, either the middle would close or the therapist would depart.

The research is obvious that Childhood trauma results in higher rates of early morbidity and health problems akin to heart problems. However, it was striking to see that these symptoms started to appear in people as young as their teens.

Holistic interventions

Society typically attempts to scale back violence by correcting individual behaviors—for instance, by utilizing metal detectors to curb using weapons or by creating mentoring programs for people perceived to be vulnerable to violence.

I imagine a more holistic approach would go further. Libraries, parks and community centers Promote education, physical activity and social cohesion for kids in high poverty neighborhoods. Connecting people to jobs that provide a living wage helps maintain a good quality of life increase their self-esteem. Investing in high-quality mental health services in neighborhoods that lack such services could make this possible for young people what skilled support you wish to process their surroundings and what is going on around them.

In short, recognizing that violence takes many forms and requires multiple levels of intervention could make a giant difference.