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After being patted down twice and escorted by a prison guard through a series of automatic security steel doors, Dana Persia entered a second-floor room at Riverside Correctional Facility.
Though she had been given a tour of the Northeast-based maximum-security jail in the past, this was the first time she would come face-to-face with five female inmates selected by a social worker to take her image-consulting seminar.
For a split second, doubt gripped Persia, who runs DP Image Consulting out of her home on the 2500 block of South Alder Street. "What the heck are you doing here?" she recalled asking herself. "You’re just a girl who had this idea. What are you doing here in this prison?"
Waiting for the women to arrive, Persia said a prayer and hoped for the best.
The prisoners filed in and smiled when they saw the person who would help transform their lives and aid their transition into society.
Fall 2006, Persia created The Women’s Image Project: Building Self-Esteem From the Outside-In, as part of the consulting company she founded a year earlier. Focusing on basic grooming, makeup skills, dressing for success and interpersonal skills, Persia presents the four-week workshops Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 9 at the prison on State Road.
Now in the middle of her third workshop with the first debuting in July, her fourth installment will commence in January. So far, 20 women have benefitted from Persia’s 20-plus years of corporate and beauty experience. The participants so far have been a mix of ethnicities, with an age range of 20 to 40. Most are from the Kensington area and serving sentences for robbery, buying and selling drugs and prostitution.
But the stylish Packer Park native quickly fit in, earning her pupils’ trust and respect by treating them as equals, she said. "I joked around with them. I had to meet them at their level. These women did some really nasty things. I didn’t know how they were going to relate to me.
"It was very important for me to respect these women. Some people may disagree, but I don’t look at them as inmates. I look at them as women who didn’t have a very good start in life. Everybody deserves a second chance."
The consultant gives each attendee a notebook to write down thoughts and take notes. The workshop begins with an overview and introduction to image: why it is important and how to present a good first impression.
Persia discusses basic grooming like fresh breath and clean nails before moving to makeup application, how to dress to succeed and interpersonal skills like how to walk into a room for a job interview and shake hands. "They love it," she said of the latter. "You can just see that. I’m showing them something that nobody would ever think of showing them. It’s little, but it means a lot."
Because she is limited in what she can bring to a prison, Persia relies on visuals. And, since makeup is banned in correctional facilities, Persia had to convince officials she couldn’t do her work without it. "I made an argument: That’s not going to work. I’m trying to show these women and reteach them. I wanted to show them how to use it and enhance their beauty," she said. In the end, she got her way.
Upon completion of the course, women receive a certificate and gift bag of soap, lotion, ChapStick and an inspirational bookmark. Again, prison restrictions limit what Persia can give them, she said.
Feedback — submitted to Persia through attendees’ testimonials — has been positive.
"This program helped me realize that I have a beautiful personality and that I do have the skills to do something outside of my career field, which is construction," 23-year-old inmate Keinesha wrote. "It has allowed me to stop thinking people look at me as a negative person."
Ann, 40, wrote, "Being on drugs for 25 years of my life, the image that I projected was very nasty. I realized how much I do care about how I look. I didn’t realize that I had forgotten some things as far as dressing, grooming and hygiene. This program helped to polish and refine myself."
Twenty-two-year old Lisa had a similar attitude-changing experience: "The program made me look at life differently and I know that I can accomplish things if I put my mind to it."
Inmates are not who Persia thought would be her clientele. After time in Manhattan working in corporate communications, she returned to Philadelphia in 1998 and attended The Jean Madeline Aveda Institute in Queen Village, where she became an esthetician.
"I always got facials and I loved makeup since high school. I always had a love of everything beauty and fashion," she said.
Wanting to merge her 20-plus-years business background with her passion, Persia founded DP Image Consulting and is a member of the Association of Image Consultants Inc. as well as a certified image consultant. In her line of work, Persia and others educate individuals and corporations on image, style, grooming and wardrobe.
After reading a newspaper article about inmates re-entering society, Persia’s prison seminar began to take shape. "Maybe I could do something with [consulting] to help women when they come out of prison, to help them with their self-esteem, their image," she remembers thinking.
Female prisoners were a natural choice for the consultant, who has sat on a number of boards for women’s groups like Women Against Abuse and Career Wardrobe.
Persia contacted William Chaney, director of volunteer services for the Philadelphia Prison System, and arranged a meeting. "He was very receptive. He was definitely interested in what I had to say," she said, referencing her volunteer work.
Chaney said the class has been very well-received and hopes Persia will continue with it. "The women really enjoy it and look forward to it. It’s having a very positive effect on the way they see themselves. It’s something that we hope will be continued and something that the Philadelphia Prison System appreciated greatly — her time, effort, energy and expertise that she put into trying to help people who need help," he said.
After a background check, getting finger-printed and arranging her prison credentials, Persia was ready. Armed with years of experience and her cosmetics bag, she never expected the reception she would find. Word of the workshop traveled fast at Riverside, with women eager to sign up. "I’m getting a reputation in the prison," the consultant said with a laugh.
This year, a social worker chose participants , but since the program is gaining momentum, in January Persia will oversee selection by holding a half-hour meeting on a cell block then letting the first 20 interested women sign up.
Entering uncharted territory, Persia never expected to be inspired by the women she would meet behind bars. After one makeover, a 40-something recipient started to cry, telling Persia that as a prostitute for 25 years she had always painted her face in heavy makeup. Now she understood the meaning of less is more.
"I remember just looking at her and she was so appreciative and thankful," Persia said.
The entrepreneur would like to expand her workshop to other prisons throughout the state, but that would take funding and a team of image consultants. For now, the few lives Persia is able to touch are more than enough to keep her going.
"I get a feeling when I do this that fills me up. To know that I might make a difference in one of these women’s lives, it’s not fluff, it’s something," she said.
