00:00The Barbershop Foreign Exchange is providing at this initial stage skills training for 15 youths who are incarcerated at a youth training and rehabilitation center and 10 formerly incarcerated adults. It is the brainchild of Incarceration Nation's network.
00:16INN's founder and executive director Dr. Baz Dresinger says the aim is to provide both incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people with a sustainable path to the future, including financially. It has been done in partnership with the United States Embassy.
00:33So we applied for a small grant from the U.S. Embassy and they were happy to support it because it aligns with their goals of, you know, they understand that a safe Trinidad means a safe U.S. means a safe world and that we're all after the same end, which is safe communities.
00:48The hope, too, is that the Barbershop, you know, and I think our our team leader here, Nicholas Kahn, spoke on this at the at the opening today, that the Barbershop becomes a community hub for opportunities for those coming out of the justice system.
01:04And while the U.S. Embassy has donated 18,000 U.S. dollars, which has allowed for the jumpstarting of the project, it becoming a community hub will require more resources.
01:14We're looking for funding. We are interested. Certainly, if anyone is is is watching and wants to support this initiative, we will happily meet with them and talk to them some more because this is really an investment in community safety, which I know everyone in Trinidad prioritizes.
01:31People from the community interested in learning barbering skills free of charge are also welcome without an age limit or gender specificity.
01:40We have a lot of plans to have young people in there engaging with the formerly incarcerated barbers and learning lessons from them about, you know, about their path in life and using it again as an opportunity not only for practical skills training,
01:58but for dialogue and engagement and inclusion and sort of cross sector dialogue between classes that creates more social inclusion and that hopefully keeps young people out of the system altogether.
02:15So it's also a preventative mechanism.
02:17Dr. Dresinger tells us it is part of the INN's global initiative, Writings on the Wall, where support is provided for businesses owned by the formerly incarcerated and those businesses feature artwork from people in prison.
02:30U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Charlie J. Franta III, who officially opened a barbershop on September 25th, says, quote,
02:37The U.S. Embassy is proud to support this initiative that makes America stronger by reducing recidivism.
02:44By providing career alternatives to formerly incarcerated individuals, we hope to reduce crime, improve citizen security, and make Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean safer and more secure, end quote.
02:57The INN also has a therapeutic arts workshop in YTRC.
03:01INN's Trinidad and Tobago coordinator, Nicholas Kahn, says it is facilitated by artists Rayon Elborn and Isaac Kozier.
03:09And they offer the opportunity to just express themselves through music, through art, through spoken word, even teaching them how to create the beats and the business aspect of the music industry.
03:24It falls under the umbrella of the INN's music group, Critical Mass, which uses the art form to shift culture and narratives, including those pertaining to stigma and educating people on the realities of the criminal justice system.
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