Amado Gonzalez is hoping a barbershop training and work readiness program will put him on the path to a profitable future.

“It’s a very good trade to have,” Gonzalez said. “You’re not going to have a robot cut your hair in 50 years. You want another person to do it — somebody with style, somebody with class.”

The program was designed for young people in Harlem who are eager to master a trade. They meet with instructors three days a week and learn techniques, like how to line up a fade or give the perfect shave.

“Cutting hair is a high six-figure job. Every kid in the city wants to learn or wants to get money,” Russell “Big Russ” Smith said.

After 30 years of running his line of barbershops in the local neighborhood, Smith started the program during the COVID-19 pandemic, fulfilling his dream of giving kids who don’t have many opportunities an alternative to the streets.

He says it’s the first Black owned, youth barber training program in Harlem.

“You got young kids just robbing people [and] looking for a way out,” Smith said. “Everybody’s not going to college. Everybody’s not going to be a baseball player.”

Smith says he is proud of the program and the lives he is sure will be changed for the better.

“Knowing I helped kids, helped people, and that’s the main goal, is for this to live on forever,” Smith said.