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Me, Myself, & Mine
Natural Hair Education (MMM)
ME, MYSELF & MINE
Mental Wellbeing through Personal Grooming and Cultural Pride
Breaking Down the Lie Natural Hair Education
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The goal of the Me, Myself and Mine Program is to develop and implement mental wellness programming that will help reduce the negative feelings and experiences that foster parents and foster youth have when providing personal care and maintenance for curly and kinky curly hair.
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This prevention program will focus on minority youth in the foster care system.
By educating foster parents and youth on proper hair care and maintenance, our program will build resilience and lift self-esteem improving the foster family connection, academic achievement, cultural connectedness, long-term hair health, and lifelong confidence.
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Community Now’s “Me, Myself & Mine Natural Hair Education” is an empowerment program of self-awareness and pride in kinky curly hair. Participants: parents & youth will learn proper kinky, curly hair care and maintenance to increase skill & self-confidence. Participants will learn hair texture, hair type, porosity, and density. Participants will understand differences in haircare products, and which types work best on their hair. Foster parents will gain clarity and confidence regarding curly hair maintenance. Children with kinky curly hair have particular challenges. The goal of Me, Myself & Mine (MMM) is to develop hair care education and workshops in Southern California that promote personal happiness and self-esteem, creating self-awareness and pride in curly and kinky-curly hair care.
Foster Family Program
This program focuses on minority youth in the foster care system. Since many foster parents do not share the ethnic background of the children in their care, they lack the experience to properly care for and style the child’s hair. By educating foster parents and youth on proper hair care and maintenance, this program builds resilience and lifts self-esteem, enhancing the positive foster family experience by increasing the personal connection.
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African American children represent 15% of open foster care cases and 17% of foster care placements in Riverside County.
Most of these children do not know how to take care of their hair and feel insecure about their personal appearance and value. This means children, who may already feel out of place and “different,” go to school embarrassed about their appearance and have no idea how to change it. This creates mental stress that can lower self-esteem, cause a sense of social isolation, self-hatred, and other risk factors that lead to acting out through truancy, drinking, illegal drug use, and may ultimately lead a child to drop out of school or harm herself in some way.
WORKSHOPS
The program consists of one or two 4-6 hour workshops with hands-on hair education. Each session is treated like a special event, with food and beverages, free hair care products, and training.
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EDUCATION
Over the course of the sessions, participants learn about their hair texture and porosity, how to care for and style their hair; which type of products work best for them; and they actually wash and style their hair, learning a new style at each session.
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SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS
40 minute to 1 ½ hr. presentation. Me, Myself & Mine Natural Hair Education Presentations teach our young ladies the history of natural hair care, colorism, and good vs bad hair. Providing hair care knowledge, cultural awareness, and building self-esteem.