This recent news item has some relevance to what Social Role Valorization (SRV) teaches about the goal and means of image enhancement: to help vulnerable and societally devalued people to have societally valued roles, and thus to open the door to having the ‘good things of life’ which most people in a society want and expect.
A quote from the article:
“Our primary concern is to give people their dignity,” Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, head of the Office of Papal Charities, told the Italian news agency ANSA. In November, construction started on new showers and bathrooms for the homeless under the colonnades of St. Peter’s Square. The archbishop, who oversaw the project, set aside space for a barber. He noted the difficulty that the homeless face in washing themselves, which in turn helps cause others to reject them—or causes them to fear rejection.
Among other things, this has relevance to heightened vulnerability, negative perception followed by negative treatment, image enhancement, personal appearance, and access to the good things of life. See for example the 3rd rev. ed. of the SRV monograph by Wolfensberger, pp. 65, 68 on imagery.
Unfortunately, this new barber shop will be open on Mondays, when, according to the article, barber shops in Rome are traditionally closed. This contradicts the SRV approach of following cultural norms, including in terms of activities and time use. See also the PASSING manual, R132 lmage Projection of Service Activities and Activity Timing.
Marc Tumeinski