Nuestra Belleza: Health and Beauty of the Latina Woman™

Started in 2001, Nuestra Belleza was modeled after the Institute's successful Black Pearls program to educate and increase awareness among Latina women about essential health issues, using beauty salons as classrooms. In 2006, the Institute replicated this award-winning program in Philadelphia.

Nuestra Belleza ofrece información y chequeos de salud en diferentes salones de belleza para mujeres Latinas urbanas.

Cardiovascular Disease
Heart of a Woman uses a culturally tailored cardiovascular disease curriculum to promote heart disease risk reduction messages to African American and Afro-Caribbean women.  The curriculum was developed as a project of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center and funding from New York University allowed its testing in two hair salons in Central Brooklyn. 

Beginning in January 2011, the Institute has moved forward to broaden the impact of Heart of a Woman by launching a major initiative targeting Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, and Flatbush.  Supported by a leadership grant of $190,000 from Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, the initiative is being carried out in partnership with customers and stylists in eight hair salons.  Heart of a Woman will increase awareness of Black women's risk of heart disease and promote changes in diet and exercise.  Heart of a Woman will train stylists to serve as lay health educators for their customers, offering encouragement and fact-based information about heart health.

Ovarian Cancer
In partnership with the Lynne Cohen Cancer Screening and Prevention Clinic for High Risk Women (LCCC), the Institute conducted a 3-year beauty salon-based ovarian health education initiative,conducted in Sunset Park, Brooklyn from October 2006-September 2009. The goal was to increase Latina women's awareness of risk factors, symptoms, early detection and treatment of ovarian cancer.

Salon-based Programs

Black Pearls
The Black Pearls program provides health education on screening, prevention and management of chronic health conditions to stylists and customers, reaching women in salons in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. In 2006, the Institute replicated this award-winning program in Philadelphia.

Soul Sense of Beauty
The Soul Sense of Beauty project trained hair stylists in Brooklyn salons to be breast health advocates through the delivery of breast health messages to their customers.

ACCESS
The Langeloth Foundation funded a three-year initiative  to increase  access to community health services for previously incarcerated individuals and their families. This program will be conducted in beauty salons and barbershops. Sharing project findings with prison professionals in discharge planning will assist them in  preparing prisoners for re-entry.

HIV/AIDS
The United Way of New York City funded the Institute to develop a HIV/AIDS curriculum to train stylists to deliver HIV/AIDS risk reduction messages to their customers. The curriculum was informed from information gathered through surveys from stylists and customers on HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs, as well as through focus groups with stylists and members of the Institute's Health & Beauty Council.