Seattle's "Down Low Barbershop Project" Teaches Patrons About HIV/AIDS

on Sunday profiled the Down Low Barbershop Project, an effort by the Seattle-based groups Brother to Brother and Shear Support to educate the African-American community about HIV/AIDS. The project trains hair stylists as HIV/AIDS educators and holds informational courses on HIV/AIDS in barbershops. Participants in the classes are given $20 haircut certificates and $30 money orders as incentives for completing the four-hour course. The project also provides barbers with packets containing condoms and HIV/AIDS statistics to distribute in their shops, The Times reports. Thus far, 15 of the city's dozens of African-American-oriented barbershops have joined the project. However, Derrick Harris of Brother to Brother said, "[W]e won't know [the program is] effective until the rates start going down" (Ramirez, The Seattle Times, 7/20).

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