Tom Chapman, founder of The Lions Barber Collective, has announced that they have received a £30,000 grant from The National Lottery in the UK, which will go toward training more than 100 barbers in ‘barber talk training’ in conjunction with World Mental Health Day.
Tom says: “This awards allows us to train more barbers to recognise the signs if someone is struggling, to ask the questions we may be scared to ask, to listen with empathy and without judgement and give them the knowledge to signpost people on to the help they may need.”
Furthermore, The Lions Barber Collective has been working with Exeter College recently and hope to take the training into other colleges with the aim of training the next generation of the hair industry in these skills.
Tom concludes: “I am grateful to everyone in our industry who has ever asked those difficult questions, don’t be scared to talk about mental health.”
We salute Tom and the team of Lions for all of the amazing work they do to support people throughout the UK and beyond.