INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A local nonprofit is taking a new approach to youth violence prevention by helping young people in underserved communities build careers through barbering.

Mended Arrows Academy of Barbering will welcome its first class on August 11th. The nonprofit says it’s designed to prepare students for state licensure while also teaching entrepreneurship, professionalism and life skills.

“This is the very reason why I exist, it’s purpose, and that’s one thing that we want to teach those that we will be instruction that they have a bigger and broader purpose,” founder and executive director Adrian Burney of Mended Arrows Academy of Barbering said.

The academy grew out of Mended Arrows’ “T(hair)apy” program, where the barber chair became a place for mentorship, mental health conversations and violence prevention in underserved neighborhoods.

“The goal is to develop them personally an also to teach them the business of barbering. Not just the technique, but also teaching them how to go out and do the same thing that we’ll be doing for them which is to heal and develop,” Burney said.

To help remove financial barriers, the nonprofit is offering a scholarship for a student enrolling in their first class.

“We’re hoping that the community will partner with us, by giving donations to where we can give to, but by the state, we’re able to teach and instruct 20 students per one barber instructor,” Burney said. “There’s a lot of talented individuals out there that’s interested in the barbering industry, and we want to just pay it forward and help.”

Applications for the scholarship are open until the end of July. Winners will be announced August 1st.