Middlesex District Attorney Ryan Trains Student Stylists on Domestic Violence Prevention
TYNGSBOROUGH – Local survivors of domestic violence were treated to a special day of hair cuts, manicures and lunch Monday at the Greater Lowell Technical High School while students received important training on the signs of domestic violence as part of the Cut It Out Middlesex program led by Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.
District Attorney Ryan led the training Monday for close to 60 cosmetology students from the Greater Lowell Technical High School, including students from Lowell, Tyngsborough, Dracut, and Dunstable. Participants in Cut It Out Middlesex learn how to spot signs of domestic violence and how to safely refer clients to local community service providers. The training brings participants together with representatives from community-based domestic violence programs and domestic violence officers from local police departments. Joining District Attorney Ryan for the program today were Alternative House, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, Lowell Police, Greater Lowell Tech Superintendent Roger Bourgeois, and School Committee member Raymond Boutin.
“Salon professionals are in a unique position to assist domestic violence victims because of the intimate, and often long-term, relationship many of them develop with their clients,” District Attorney Ryan said. “Educated with information about what signs might indicate abuse and what local assistance is available, hair stylists may provide a crucial bridge linking victims with resources and trained advocates who can help. We are building a foundation for this awareness by reaching students at the earliest points of their cosmetology training.”
“Coming from communities that shame and blame survivors of abuse, this event provided a rare opportunity where these women could relax and indulge themselves,” said Dipanwita Bhattacharyya, director of Education and Outreach at the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence. “Additionally, the event created much-needed awareness about the cause, dynamics, and impact of domestic violence among a group that is often the first to hear about abuse. As future salon professionals, these students will be able to take and hopefully, spread the knowledge they gained at the event. We would like to thank District Attorney Marian Ryan for her office’s commitment to support survivors of domestic violence in their journey toward empowerment.”
“Alternative House is greatly appreciative of the wonderful GLTHS Cosmetology students who made our women feel very special and appreciated at the Cut It Out program, and this year, before Valentine’s Day made it even extra special,” said Kathy Kelley, executive director of Alternative House. “Alternative House is thankful for District Attorney Marian Ryan and her staff who organized this event.”
Following the training, high school seniors from Greater Lowell Tech’s cosmetology program then put their skills to work by providing salon services to a dozen women and men from Alternative House of Lowell and the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence of Lowell and Boston. Later, the culinary students cooked and served lunch to the survivors.
District Attorney Ryan has trained approximately 800 students and professionals since bringing the Cut it Out program to towns across Middlesex County.
Starting in 2009, Cut It Out Middlesex was first initiated with school-based training programs at local vocational and technical high schools to create awareness around the issue of domestic violence at the earliest stage of students’ professional development. Working in partnership with the national beauty school chain, Empire Beauty School, the program was taught at Empire’s Middlesex campuses located in Lowell, Framingham and Malden. The Empire training, led by District Attorney Ryan, was so successful it has been incorporated into the school’s curriculum. Starting this past fall, District Attorney Ryan has led trainings in private salons throughout the county, including in Newton and Stoneham, with additional salons hosting the program this spring. Just last month, the Middlesex District Attorney formed a partnership with Elizabeth Grady, marking the first time that the program has expanded to include student-estheticians, makeup artists and massage therapists.
The “Cut It Out” program was conceived and first implemented in 2002 in Alabama. A program of the Professional Beauty Association Foundation, it mobilizes salon professionals and others to fight the epidemic of domestic abuse in communities across the country by building awareness and training salon professionals to recognize warning signs and safely refer clients, friends, family and co-workers to local resources.
Middlesex County is the largest county in Massachusetts and one of the largest counties in the country with 54 towns and cities and 26 colleges in urban, suburban, and rural areas, comprising over one quarter of the population of Massachusetts. The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office prosecutes more than 35,000 cases a year in nineteen superior, district and juvenile courts and has offices throughout the county, including in Ayer, Cambridge, Concord, Framingham, Lowell, Malden, Marlborough, Newton, Somerville, Waltham and Woburn.