The Beautywell Project

“The organization reviewed the 990 tax return at its board meeting.”

“SEE ATTACHED POLICY”

“Forms 1023 and 990 will be made available upon request.”

“The organization's governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are available to the public upon reqeust in its office.”

“The beautywell project is an organization that was founded to address the issue of skin-lightening practices and chemical exposures in the immigrant and communities of color. The organization's mission is to develop healthy individuals, families and community through education,beautywell young women's wellness and leadership cohort.”

“We have done cohorts of the young womens wellness and leadership initiative (ywwli). Ywwli is to train young 1418-year-old east african young women and other young women of color to take the lead in their health and well-being, social-emotional well-being, gain policy and advocacy skills, and create social media advocacy campaigns to address skin- lightening practices, self-esteem and promote reproductive health and raise awareness on issues that are impacting their communities. Ywwli gives them a safe space to flourish, re-discover, and explore parts of their health and wellness that they have not yet tapped into due to social and economic limitations. Each cohort met weekly for 18 weeks and concluded with a final project presentation and graduation ceremony. Ywwli includes one-on-one mentorship for young women and will provide sustainable mentorship once they complete the program. Also, the new grants helped us improve quality and create comprehensive evaluation metrics. We increased the number mentors who can work with the ywwli participants. We have also increased partnership with more school which allows us recruiting more young girls to participate in our program.”

“We have developed the beautywell project database that addresses the problem of skin-lightening products, chemical exposures, and colorism in the cosmetics industry. This database contains skin-lightening products that beautywell has tested in labs and identified to contain harmful ingredients that pose significant risk to individual and communities health. This will give individuals and communities to learn about this toxic skin-lightening and other cosmetics products that contain high levels of toxic chemicals. This will help individuals and communities to make informed decisions about their health and advocate for safer beauty practices and stricter regulations within the cosmetics industry. Last year we have tested more beauty products including skin-lightening products which showed elevated levels of mercury. Last year we have increased our partnership and collaborated with the university of minnesota school of public health on the healthy beauty salon project which is community-based participatory research project that helps beauty salon owners deliver the healthiest experience for their clients and workers. This project helped us working with several salons and learned the type of products they use and we were able to collect samples to test the products that they use. This learning also helped us develop education and training materials for the salons. We have trained students and professionals to effectively work with salons and conduct community-based participatory research in salons and communities. Beautywell has been working with some salons to prepare them for green business certifications.”

“Moreover, beautywell hosted a roundtable discussion last year that highlighted and raised awareness on the issues of toxic beauty products including skin-lightening and chemical exposures. This important discussion helped us to bring together number of stakeholders including state and national legislators, representatives from the minnesota state agencies, and federal agencies including food and drug administration (fda) who have been working with beautywell to address skin-lightening and chemical exposures. We also have developed a knowledge hub where we posting all the education materials including videos, infographics and brochures. These materials are about raising awareness on the issues of colorism, skin-lightening practice and chemical exposures. We have created this knowledge hub for people to help them stop the use of these toxic skin-lightening products and learn about the health and psychological impact that these products cause for human health. Both the beautywell database and knowledge hub are now launched, and people have been accessing to this information and found the sites helpful.”

“We have developed animation videos in english, somali, spanish, hmong, french, swahili, and amharic languages. These animation videos focus on educating communities of color about mercury, hydroquinone, and steroid exposures from skin-lightening products to raise awareness of the health and psychological impacts of these toxic products. The lack of culturally specific and sensitive educational materials, social pressures, and lack of solid regulation systems that can regulate those toxic chemicals all contribute to this issue. The purpose of these animations is to address the root causes of skin-lightening use, including colorism and other harmful cultural practices. Uplift and communicate messages of diverse beauty standards and community strength while communicating specific information about harms from chemicals.”

“Meals & entertainment 0 3,094 0 other business expenses 0 5 0 program expenses 671 0 0 bank charges 192 0 0 contractors 7,922 0 0 event expenses 80 0 0 insurance 3,545 0 0 office rent 10,756 0 0 general administrative 9,525 0 0 other program expenses 350 0 0 direct program expenses 60,606 0 0 shipping & delivery 2,557 0 0 supplies 782 0 0 utilities 658 0 0 repairs & maintenance 0 672 0 taxes & licenses 0 76 0 travel 0 9,442 0 total 97,644 13,289 0”