In 2007 Anthony Barton of Elmsford, NY lost his job at a hospital due to the recession. Faced with a family to support and a new car on which he was making payments, he turned to his longtime skill of cutting hair to make ends meet. Barton became a NYS licensed Master Barber and by 2013 was the owner and operator of a barbershop in White Plains. Finding success and sustainable self-employment through his trade as a barber made Barton realize that this skill could be used to help others start a new life as well.
Because there are only three accredited Barber schools in NYS – in Manhattan, Long Island, and Rochester - Barton saw a real need for a training program in Westchester County.
In October 2014 Mr. Barton made a request to the local community center for space that would allow him to set-up a barber training program. With a suitcase of clippers and a small room to call his own, Barton started to perform outreach to the unemployed and underemployed in the area about his training program; there was tremendous interest. Offering free haircuts to the public as he trains the barbers, Barton has managed to “take men off the streets and completely change their lives with a pair of clippers.”
Workforce Development Institute was first approached by Barton in 2015 to assist in upgrading equipment for his training program, and provided funding to establish five barber stations. The WDI Lower Hudson Valley Regional Director, Sonja Brown, saw potential and worked with Mr. Barton on a budget. The new equipment helped the program graduate and certify 11 individuals during that first year. Three of these trainees have become employees of the training program (to meet the growing demand); seven have found employment in other barbershops; and the last graduate is in the process of opening her own shop. During this initial year of operation some students were given training tuition-free while others were subsidized through grants and assistance from the local One-Stop. Certification was obtained through the Long Island Barber Institute, with Barton acting as liaison after students had successfully completed his program.
Along the way, Barton also established a network of barbershop owners in Westchester County and the Bronx that expressed a willingness to hire his graduates. In addition, because of the lack of barber schools many of these shops were operating with unlicensed barbers and wanted to become licensed themselves.
To build on the success of the program and meet demand, WDI again assisted Barton with funding in 2016, this time in support of an application to help Barton’s own program become a NYS-accredited barber school. Obtaining NYS certification for his school will allow Mr. Barton to approve licensing applications for anyone who wants to take the practical exam to become a Master Barber, and offer certification immediately upon graduation. Once accreditation is achieved, the Barton school will also be able to offer financial assistance. It is the goal of the expanded program to produce significantly more Master Barbers each year.
Barton’s motto is “changing the world one haircut at a time”; with determination and vision, he is doing just that.
