Beauty salons and barber shops have long been fertile ground for all types of talk, places where people often feel comfortable discussing things they perhaps wouldn&8217;t in other settings.

With that in mind, the Guardian Sexual Assault Center is holding a workshop Oct. 11 for hair stylists, barbers, nail technicians and cosmetology and barber students.

The goal of the free workshop? To teach them how to become better listeners and advocates for clients who are victims of domestic violence and/or sexual assault.

The center&8217;s Sandra Davis got the idea from a similar workshop the Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault had last year in Jackson.

&8220;I had forgotten about it until about a week or so ago, when I took my son to the barber,&8221; Davis said.

Hearing several conversations &8212; though not all of them dealt with assault &8212; Davis realized once again that stylists might be on the front lines when it came to hearing about abuse.

&8220;So many people come through there, and there&8217;s a tendency to do a lot of talking,&8221; Davis said. &8220;It&8217;s an environment where people have grown to be comfortable.&8221;

The workshop will include several speakers, from judges to representatives of law enforcement agencies to those whose nonprofits and agencies deal with violence victims.

&8220;They&8217;ll talk about their agencies and the assistance they provide, as well as how to address sexual assault and domestic violence victims,&8221; Davis said.

The event, &8220;Speaking Out Against Assault,&8221; will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Natchez Eola Hotel at 110 N. Pearl St. Space for the workshop is limited, so call 442-0107 as soon as possible to preregister.

4Getting groups of health care providers and citizens together throughout a 41-county area to brainstorm what the region&8217;s greatest health needs are is a good idea.

Receiving a more than $1 million federal grant to help fund solutions to those problems, however, is even better.

The Aaron E. Henry Community Health Services Center in Clarksdale, along with a handful of other health care-related agencies and associations throughout the state, received the grant earlier this month.

The money will be used to support development of the Mississippi Strategic Health Improvement through Network Expansion Project, or MS SHINE for short.

How the programs works is this: For two years now groups throughout the region, including the Miss-Lou, have conducted meetings to identify the top health care needs of their areas.

In the end, they identified five areas that most needed addressing: obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, teen pregnancy and substance abuse.

Next, MS SHINE will hold a workshop Oct. 18 in Jackson to give representatives of nonprofits a better idea of how to apply for part of the grant funds in order to start programs in their communities to address the above problems. For more information, contact Kimberly Reed, communications manager for the MS SHINE Project, at (662) 624-4292, extension 1017.

Together, we can find solutions to the region&8217;s health problems, helping improve the quality of life in our communities.

City Editor

Nita McCann

can be reached at 445-3554 or by e-mail at

nita.mccann@natchezdemocrat.com

.