(CNN) Shirley Raines, who brings beauty and hope to the men and women living on Los Angeles' Skid Row, is the 2021 CNN Hero of the Year.
As she received her award Sunday, Raines thanked her children including her late son, who inspired her work.
"This surely hasn't been easy. I stand before you a very broken woman," an emotional Raines said. "I am a mother without a son and there are a lot of people in the streets without a mother -- and I feel like it's a fair exchange."
Raines was presented with the CNN Hero of the Year award Sunday night by hosts Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa. Online voters selected her from among this year's Top 10 CNN Heroes finalists.
Inside 2021's 'CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute'
Hosts Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa pose with the 2021 CNN Heroes following The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute.'
2021 CNN Hero Shirley Raines reacts as she is named the 2021 Hero of the Year. For the past six years, Raines and her organization,
Beauty 2 the Streetz, have been a mainstay on Skid Row, providing food, clothing, hair and makeup services -- and most recently health and hygiene items -- to thousands of people.
Harold O'Neal, on piano, and Aloe Blacc perform onstage ahead of the CNN Hero of the Year announcement.
2021 CNN Hero Dr. Patricia Gordon speaks onstage during The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute.' Dr. Gordon is a radiation oncologist and the founder of the non-profit
CureCervicalCancer. After 27 years, Gordon left her private practice in 2014 to devote all her time to CureCervicalCancer. She takes no salary.
2021 CNN Hero Zannah Mustapha accepts his award onstage. For more than a decade, Mustapha has devoted his life to providing hope and peace for children caught in the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency. Today, Mustapha and his staff educate more than 2,000 students from both sides of the conflict at the
Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School in Maiduguri.
2021 CNN Hero David Flink accepts his award onstage from Kelly Ripa. Since 1998,
Eye to Eye has grown into a nationwide non-profit that pairs middle school children who have a learning difference with a college or high school mentor who also has a learning difference.
Gymnast Maggie Nichols is recognized during The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute.' Nichols and other elite gymnasts testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September during a hearing about the FBI's handling of the sex abuse investigation of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
Actress and singer Lynda Carter introduces 2021 CNN Hero Michele Neff Hernandez. Her non-profit,
Soaring Spirits, connects widows and widowers, allowing them to heal in a community that understands the pain of losing a partner.
2021 CNN Hero Dr. Ala Stanford speaks onstage after accepting her award. Since April 2020, Dr. Ala Stanford's group, the
Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium, has brought testing and vaccines to more than 75,000 residents of Philadelphia's minority neighborhoods.
In a pre-taped recording, Dr. Anthony Fauci introduces 2021 CNN Hero Dr. Ala Stanford during The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute.'
2021 Young Wonder Chelsea Phaire and Josh Groban pose backstage. On her 10th birthday, Chelsea asked her family and friends to give her art supplies to donate instead of presents. Her vision was to help children cope by expressing their feelings through art. That was the start of this 12-year-old's non-profit Chelsea's Charity.
2021 CNN Hero Jenifer Colpas accepts her award from presenter Rachel Zegler. In 2015, with the help of friends, Colpas co-founded
Tierra Grata. Today, the non-profit provides access to clean water, solar-powered lights and electricity along with eco-toilets and showers for remote rural communities throughout Colombia.
2021 CNN Hero Lynda Doughty accepts her award onstage. Since 2011, her nonprofit,
Marine Mammals of Maine, has provided response efforts, assistance and medical care for more than 3,000 marine animals.
Audience members give a standing ovation to January 6th officers Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, Officer Daniel Hodges, Officer Michael Fanone, and Pfc. Harry Dunn, as they are recognized for their heroism.
2021 CNN Hero Hector Guadalupe speaks onstage after accepting his award from actor Christopher Meloni.
Guadalupe's non-profit,
A Second U Foundation, helps formerly incarcerated men and women get certified as personal trainers and build careers in the fitness industry.
2021 CNN Hero Made Janur Yasa speaks after accepting his award. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he started a program where local villagers in Bali could exchange plastic for rice -- a barter system that would benefit the environment and empower the local people. Residents can turn in plastic trash they collected in exchange for a main food staple. In May 2020, he hosted the first exchange in the village where he was born and raised. It was a success, and the concept quickly spread to other villages across Bali. His non-profit,
Plastic Exchange, was born.
2021 Young Wonder Jordan Mittler poses with Jon Batiste backstage. Mittler, who is 17 years old, realized there were senior citizens needing help acclimating to the world of technology. So, at 12, he decided to find and teach those who wanted to learn. That was the start of Mittler Senior Technology.
Jon Batiste introduces 2021 Young Wonder Jordan Mittler.
2021 CNN Hero Shirley Raines accepts her award onstage.
Niecy Nash speaks onstage prior to presenting CNN Hero Shirley Raines her award.
Hosts Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa speak onstage.
The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute' ceremony is held at the American Museum of Natural History.
From left, David Flink, Jenifer Colpas, Lynda Doughty, Michele Neff Hernandez, Shirley Raines, Made Janur Yasa, Zannah Mustapha, Dr. Ala Stanford, Dr. Patricia Gordon, and Hector Guadalupe, the 2021 CNN Top 10 Heroes, pose together prior to the ceremony.
Musician Jon Batiste arrives on the red carpet. Batiste is set to present during the ceremony.
CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota attends The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute' red carpet.
Actress Lynda Carter arrives on the red carpet.
Actress Niecy Nash attends The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute' red carpet.
CNN anchor Kate Bolduan attends The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute' at the American Museum of Natural History.
2021 Young Wonders Chelsea Phaire, left, and Jordan Mittler pose on the carpet.
Pfc. Harry Dunn arrives on the red carpet at The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute' at the American Museum of Natural History on Sunday, December 12, in New York City.
Actor Christopher Meloni arrives on the red carpet at The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute' at the American Museum of Natural History on Sunday, December 12, in New York City. Meloni is one of the evening's celebrity presenters.
From left, Officer Michael Fanone, Officer Daniel Hodges, Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and Pfc. Harry Dunn attend The 15th Annual 'CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute' at the American Museum of Natural History on Sunday, December 12, in New York City.
Raines and her non-profit Beauty 2 the Streetz have been a mainstay on Skid Row for the past six years, providing food, clothing, and hair and makeup services to thousands of people.
Every week, Raines and her team of volunteers set up shop and transform part of Skid Row -- home to one of the nation's largest concentrations of homeless people -- into an outdoor beauty salon.
Her goal: to make the homeless feel human, whether that means a haircut, a facial, a hearty meal or a hug.
"It's not so much just giving them makeup or doing their hair, it's also the physical touch," Raines said. "People need physical touch. That's what was hard when the pandemic hit. We had to stop doing hair, we had to stop doing barber services. And that might be the nicest touch they've had all day."
As the 2021 CNN Hero of the Year, Raines will receive $100,000 to expand her work. She and the other top 10 CNN Heroes honored at Sunday's gala all receive a $10,000 cash award.
Raines struggled for years with financial insecurity, grief and loss after the death of her young son, Demetrius.
"The world looked at me and thought probably the same thing they think about the homeless when they pass them by," she said. "You never know what anyone's going through, you know?"
Raines' twin sister urged her to find a purpose for her pain. That purpose came in 2017 when Raines joined a church group on a feeding mission.
"I went to Skid Row, I'm like, 'Oh, this is where all the broken people are? Oh, I've been looking for y'all all my life," she said. "I never wanted to leave. It's a place where people have amazing hearts, but nobody can see it because they can't see the forest for the trees."
Initially, Beauty 2 the Streetz was small, with just Raines and her children helping to hand out food, drinks, hygiene kits and beauty products. Raines alone would color people's hair and do their makeup.
But then she started livestreaming the events and posting pictures to Instagram, and Beauty 2 the Streetz soon became more well known.
Licensed hair stylists, barbers, makeup artists and even big makeup companies reached out to Raines saying they wanted to help.
By 2019, Raines had registered Beauty 2 the Streetz as an official non-profit with about two dozen volunteers generously offering their time and efforts to help Skid Row's residents feel beautiful.
As Raines' efforts evolved into a full-scale operation, with music playing and lines forming around the block, she began providing more supplies and essentials: rape whistles, tents, sleeping bags, hygiene items -- and she teamed up with local health officials to offer more services.
Before the pandemic, Raines was making 400 meals a week in her one-bedroom apartment kitchen in Long Beach and driving three times a week to Downtown Los Angeles to feed and bring supplies to people.
Then, as Covid-19 affected many organizations' efforts, services dried up. But Raines pivoted, opting for bagged lunches and a tweaked schedule -- and she kept going.
In tandem with the health department, which provided masks, sanitizer and other personal protection items, Raines said her group and other L.A. County non-profits and community projects worked tirelessly to serve the unseen.
"We just had to use our best judgment and figure out some ways to still keep them fed, while keeping them safe, and while keeping us safe," Raines said.
Today, as vaccination rates are on the rise and a sense of normality is returning, Raines is offering help by way of food and supplies twice a week and expanding partnerships with local groups to let this often-overlooked population know there is hope.
"My sun didn't come out for 30 years. It was 30 years' worth of tomorrows before I even saw the break of day. I would be lying if I said I was always completely happy from doing this. It didn't take away the pain of my son dying. But I've certainly gotten better. I can say his name now. He is the reason I do what I do."
If you know someone who is making the world a better place, you can nominate them as a 2022 CNN Hero at CNNHeroes.com. If you would like to support Raines' work or any of the non-profit organizations of the Top 10 CNN Heroes, you can also make a donation via CNNHeroes.com. All donations made by January 3 will be matched by Subaru up to $50,000 per Hero.
To learn more, like CNN Heroes on Facebook, follow @CNNHeroes on Twitter and the CNN Heroes Instagram account. CNN's Alicia Lee contributed to this report.