Meet Shirley Raines!

From serving local organizations in the Skid Row, California area, to now being the founder of Beauty 2 The Streetz, Shirley’s organization aims to help the homeless by providing inherently human things — whether that’s a warm meal, a hot shower, or a hair and makeup transformation. Through her own experiences, Shirley has found peace through philanthropy. More specifically, through the permeation of self-care for homeless women community-wide. Her efforts shine a light on the impact of giving those the power to feel authentically beautiful and redefine homelessness in a way that bridges the gap in all communities. 

My name is: Shirley Raines

My social handles are: @Beauty2TheStreetz

Find my website at: https://www.beauty2thestreetz.org/

1. Tell us a little about yourself. Have you always been interested in the beauty world and serving the homeless community?

Beauty and self-care have always been important to me since the death of my young son in 1990. Self-care has been an important part of how I treat my depression. I’ve always been interested in philanthropy, and when I started volunteering to feed the homeless with more traditional non-profits, the homeless community expressed a desire for colored hair, or makeup like mine, so that’s what helped me get the idea to connect beauty to the homeless. Everyone at their core has a desire for self-care, and I’m happy we can serve the homeless in this way. 

2. What or who inspired you to start your non-profit organization?

My inspiration comes from my son, I am a mother with one less child, and there are a lot of motherless people on the streetz. I feel like this is a way I can honor both my son and the community.

3. How does marketing benefit the execution of your organization’s community efforts?

It’s Beauty 2 The Streetz’ goal to change the face of homelessness. We share our work online, both to get more support for the homeless community and also to allow those who feel comfortable doing so to share their stories. We are all closer to being homeless than we are to being millionaires, and I hope by allowing our platform to redefine what homelessness means for many people, we’ll be able to, as a nation, come up with real ways to end homelessness.

4. What does a typical day in your life look like?

The typical day for me involves waking up very early in the morning and preparing for our weekly giveback days. I go out to Skid Row on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and sometimes more, as needed. The days leading up to each service are spent at our warehouse, packing the service van and figuring out what supplies are needed, and going shopping for those supplies and food. I also take a lot of time out of each day to connect with our social media family through posts and live streams. They come along with me throughout all of my day-to-day preparation.

5. How has Beauty 2 The Streetz adapted during the COVID pandemic?

Since the pandemic began, we found ourselves not only providing our same beauty, food, and hygiene services, but we also began providing PPE and working with the city to facilitate testing and education for the homeless. Every time I go out, I am sure to bring PPE for the homeless, and we make sure we enforce masking and distancing to keep them safe.

6. Tell us what beauty means to you and how it impacts your organization.

Beauty to me is about being able to feel authentically yourself and happy with that self, to feel proud of who you are, whether that be through makeup or a new hair-do, or your service to others. I feel like everyone is deserving of feeling beautiful, good about who they are, regardless of where they are, and that’s really the mission of Beauty 2 The Streetz.

7. What beauty products do you feel benefit the community you serve most and why?

Makeup products and hair dye are our two most requested products. I think it’s because there’s a big sense of pride to be able to control how you look, especially for this community where so much is out of their control.

8. What is something that others might not realize about being a non-profit organization founder?

My life is 100% of the time devoted to being in service to others, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.

9. What are your 2022 dreams and goals for Beauty 2 The Streetz?

We are hoping to be able to add a mobile shower to our organization in 2022, and otherwise, our goal remains the same, to continue to shine a light on this underserved community.

*This interview has been edited and condensed.

Interested in learning more from professionals in the digital marketing and beauty industries? Check out the rest of our As Told By series.