Barbershops & Beauty Salons Do Their Part for Public Health
More than a Shop (MTAS) is a growing initiative of Luvs Art Project that partners with a network of barbershops, beauty salons and boxing gyms across Baltimore City, MD. Each of the participating businesses serves as a trusted community information hub to inform patrons and community members about public health education, including flu and COVID vaccine information and resources. In 2022, this collective of influential messengers also sponsored numerous community pop up events such as festivals, back to school drives, and voter registration efforts, where shop owners were on hand to promote COVID vaccination to the community. Recent MTAS efforts include “barbering bootcamps,” that provide career training for young adults with the goal of expanding the MTAS positive influence on public health into even more communities.