We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chrystal Hines a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Chrystal, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.
In December 2002, Chrystal Hines, Indianapolis inner-city native, recognized a need being faced by the young women in the community. With magazines, commercials, and ads all aimed at sexualizing and demoralizing young women, Chrystal knew it was essential to bring a change to the narrative. Thus, Inner Beauty Program, Inc. was birthed. The initial program began as a three-month character development program, focused on etiquette, poise, and personality and culminated with the Inner Beauty Pageant. The audience participants could watch in awe as young ladies graced the stage with amazing talent and glamour, not knowing the behind the scenes process it took to cultivate the girls: personal interviews, lifestyle changes, and unaddressed mental, social and physiological needs being fulfilled. In 2003, Hines’ thoughts that this would only be a short program and a pageant quickly turned to a passion for discovering how to meet the greater needs the young women had. They had a need to feel safe, heard, and valued. Many had a need for clothing, hygiene products, and other basic needs. Girls needed an outlet and a place to learn how to become a future virtuous woman, equipped with life skills, healthy boundaries, and positive relationships. It was evident that this program would become a greater entity that Hines now calls a “full service salon for all things girls need for an inner make-over.”
The majority of young ladies who have been historically served in Inner Beauty (and continue to be served) come from homes living below the poverty level. Over 80% are living in a single-parent led home, (single mother, single grandmother, single foster mother). We service children who are referred through Department of Child Services and Juvenile Probation, as well as youth from schools, churches, and who self-refer from the community. Over 65% of our youth have experienced a high mark on the ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) scale; meaning they already have experienced a great deal of trauma in their young lives. Approximately 40% of our youth reported not feeling safe in their neighborhood nor in their school.
Inner Beauty Program, Inc. provides over 13 services and 8 programs to help meet the needs of the youth in our community. We partner with various agencies across Central Indiana, such as Firefly, Indiana Civil Rights Commission, and Children’s Policy & Law Initiative (to name a few) because we know we cannot do this work alone. We provide a meal to our youth at every occurrence. We also send meal boxes home during school and summer breaks to ensure our children eat when we are not present. Some of the services include Mentoring/Life-Coaching, Tutoring, Day/Evening Reporting and Educational Services, Casework, and Parent Education. We give opportunity to youth to be in programs that may not be cost effective otherwise. Programs life dance, art and painting, entrepreneurship, chess, after-school programming, and youth justice provide an edge for our young people to learn to be expressive and thrive in this fast-paced world. We also travel the country with our youth on historical and college tours, camping trips, skiing, coastal beaches and other experiences. It is our goal to ensure all of our young ladies have like opportunities and exposure as would their more affluent peers.
Being from the inner city and also sharing similar life experiences and adverse situations, Chrystal Hines knows how essential this program is for young people and, along with her amazing staff, have provided thousands of youth with these services from 2002 to the present.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Chrystal Hines is from Indianapolis, Indiana. Chrystal attended Indianapolis Public Schools for her primary education. For college, she majored in Education with a strong concentration in Science and Social Studies at the University of Indianapolis. Following college, Hines started a teaching career in Indianapolis Public Schools to fulfill a need to want to give back to the great school system that educated her so well. Going back into IPS was such a rewarding experience, as Chrystal wanted to be a hero to those in her classroom in the same way that many astute men and women had been for her. Hines also taught for 2.5 years in a charter school. After being in the classroom for nearly 9 years, Chrystal decided to step out on faith and take on the full commitment of being the CEO of Inner Beauty Program, Inc. The program had taken off in year three and became of year round program. In 2007, Hines was approached by an affiliated agency of Department of Child Services to contract with them in an effort to allow their girls to join the program. Hines juggled being a teacher and CEO until 2012 when she finally committed to Inner Beauty alone. By this time, Inner Beauty had several employees and contracts in place that would only be sustained if she could give her full focus to the agency.
Chrystal is a proud wife, mother, daughter, and friend. A little known fact is that in 2005 Hines adopted an 8-month old baby girl who is now an adult. Chrystal was also a foster mother. Over the span of five years, Hines had fostered 15 children total, some of who remain in close contact. Through this, Chrystal received more knowledge on the “Nature/Nurture Controversy” and gained both lived experience and education regarding the child welfare system. This prepared her for service that she didn’t realize she would provide: Foster Support Education and Training along with Parent Education. This is provided to foster and support families in Marion Co and surrounding counties.
Chrystal Hines has sat on many planning committees and continues to be a part of several to help create safer environments for children, including Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, Girl Power Annual Conference, Youth Justice, Annual Trauma-Informed Conference, and Indy Mentor Network (founding member). During the year, Inner Beauty hosts a myriad of events, conferences, and shows. Chrystal is a board member of Living in the Moment Initiative.
Chrystal Hines has won awards for her work. Some notable awards are as follows:
Governor’s Award: Civil Rights Up and Coming Leader Award
The Jefferson Award
Children’s Bureau Prevention Provider of the Year
Excellence in Programming that Advances The Welfare of Youth
Inner Outpour Award
Moorhead: Investing in Our Community Honors
Service Award: Haughville SDA Church
Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Re-UP Experience
Leaders in Indiana’s Youth Service Community Nominee- Indiana Youth Institute
Leading Ladies Support Award
Center for Leadership Development Cert of Achievement in Life’s Work, Service, and Scholarship
HOPE Award
Honor of Throwing the First Pitch at the Indianapolis Indians Baseball Game
Sower of the Year
What I am most proud of in this work are the young ladies who are now amazing women that have come back to the program as adults to be staff, facilitators, tutors, volunteers, mentors, and now even our Board Officers of the agency. These professional women, now active board officers, gleaned from the program and applied what they were provided to their life. All degreed and working in various areas: The United States Airforce, Dental Instructing, Director of the Center for Black Excellence, and Family Developmental Services. They give back to the agency and are entrusted with the highest responsibilities in the agency. They give hope to the girls sitting in the seats where they once were. They show them that if they trust and follow the process, they too will be successful women.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My business partner happens to also be my life partner: my husband Kareem Hines. He founded the male component to our agency: New B.O.Y. (New Breed of Youth) in 2006. Kareem and I met while I was teaching. He was mentoring in my classroom. We started doing co-ed activities to teach young men and young women to foster healthy relationships (including friendships). After years of having a professional relationship, the natural order of life occurred and I eventually became his wife. Our marriage elevated the mission of the agency as youth were able to see firsthand the power of a healthy relationship. In a sense, we became like the “mother and father” of the community, not only raising our own children in our home, but especially to those who live without their natural families and find themselves living in placement facilities.
Kareem and I have our own style of running our agencies. Catering to young men and young women should have two different approaches. Both unique, but both still impactful. We have ways of connecting with youth and families that makes them feel safe, comfortable, open, and valued. Everyone feels that they have a stake here. Much like a divine connection.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
This is also a unique story. Our agency never set out to be a business. When I founded the agency in 2002 it was only supposed to be a stepping stone for character development, confidence-building, and creating a sense of cultural pride. Once word of mouth spread, contractors starting coming to us. We were funded by residual dollars from contract work for many years until I started learning about grants that were available. I took free online courses to strengthen my grant writing ability and joined various cohorts of other non-profit leaders to learn to be a sustainable business. Being a lifelong learner has its perks. We have received grant funding from several sources over the past 12 years, which gives us the ability to increase pay to our employees and provide higher positions with opportunities for advancement. From the grants and contracts we can comfortably operate from two locations. With another one of our partners, Voices Corp, we share an entire school building that had been inoperable for two years. We also occupy the wing of a church building so that we can provide services on different levels and to multiple age groups without conflict.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://IBNBMentor.org
- Instagram: Inner Beauty Program Inc.
- Facebook: Inner Beauty Program Inc.
- Linkedin: Inner Beauty Program Inc.
- Youtube: Inner Beauty Program Inc.
