Lions Barber Collective wins lottery funding

Mental health support organisation, The Lions Barber Collective, has been awarded £30,000 in National Lottery funding to support its work training hair professionals to support the mental health of their clients and colleagues. 

Founded by barber Tom Chapman in 2015, The Lions Barber Collective will use the money to deliver BarberTalk training to hair professionals across England. The training programme has been developed by Tom and psychiatrist and lead for suicide prevention in the South West, Dr Peter Aitken; so far over 1,500 hair professionals have received training in the last 18 months. 

The Collective's mission is to create non-clinical non-judgmental safe spaces where people feel comfortable to open up and talk about mental health, being able to signpost them to support and information. This is achieved through pop up barbershops in public spaces, public speaking, events and BarberTalk training.

As well as using money from The National Lottery Community Fund to deliver more training, the funding will allow The Lions Barber Collective to collect and collate data around the effectiveness of the training to both the hair professionals and the clients in the chair. 

Commenting on receiving the funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, Tom Chapman, founder of The Lions Barber Collective and BarberTalk, says:

“We're delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to enable hair professionals with the ability to recognize the signs someone may be struggling, give them the confidence to ask the right questions, actively listen with empathy and give them the knowledge to help those struggling find the help they need. This is important, especially in this time because it can save lives! The infrastructure that the hair industry has is incredible, we are on every high street from London to the smallest village and we are a non-clinical, accessible safe space that anyone can visit. Hopefully, we can bridge the gap between the communities we serve and the resources available. Suicide is the biggest killer in under 45s, 75% of them men with the highest rates in suicide since the 90s, the barbershop or salon can help prevent ill mental health.”

Karen McMillan, Programme Director at The Lions Barber Collective, adds:  

“This funding will enable us to take a few more steps closer to educating the entire industry in mental health, preparing them not only for those moments of crisis but everyday conversations as we all have mental health.”