Philadelphia native Josh Santiago offers empathy and love to those who need it the most through Empowering Cuts, his mobile barber shop nonprofit, reports Shaynah Ferreira for FOX 29.

Santiago offers free haircuts to the homeless in Kensington. While the neighborhood might be notorious, Santiago looks beyond the sensationalized headlines and just sees people in need.

“You know, while I was going to barber school, my barber instructor, he used to take the whole class to shelters,” he said. “That’s how we learned how to cut hair.”

At the start of his journey, Santiago joined forces with a nonprofit and traveled around the country to give out free haircuts to people from struggling communities. Four years ago, he decided to start his own nonprofit in the neighborhood he used to frequent as a child.

But what he does today is more than just a job for him.

“The individuals that are down here, that’s currently homeless in the Kensington section, they’re people just like we are, you know?” he said. “So when I come into this community, I’m treating them just like I would want somebody to treat my brother, my cousin, my dad, you know, my kids, whoever it is.”

Read more about Josh Santiago and his Kensington nonprofit at FOX 29.

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