Crab Cake Row: Streets of Hope in Essex finding men a new home and better life

Meet our new friends at Streets of Hope in Essex where finding men a new home and better life is their mission. This one includes a beautiful story.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

churches, shelter, talking, ron, work, place, years, met, essex, streets, united methodist church, breakfast, maryland, river, lutheran church, day, man, story, family, knew

SPEAKERS

Nestor J. Aparicio, Otis, Ron, Barbara Nock

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:05

Welcome back. We are live it cost us we are. It is a it is a beautiful, beautiful Tuesday because we’re in Dundalk where my homeland is all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery 10 times the cash for the top prize $10,000 We had a $10 winner yesterday not quite $10,000 but we have some folks here doing some great work all day long. We had Liam Pittenger stop by from bring them home. We’re going to talk about animal rescue. My son is riding shotgun today for the free soup because you come by and support our friends at the Maryland food bank. It is a cup of soup or bowl is crabcake row. Today’s day two, we’re gonna be doing five days of this. We’re going to be Coco’s on Wednesday, all day. Thursday, we’re going to be at State Fair in Kingsville. On a Friday, we’re going to be up at Pappus and Cockeysville. Lots of tech problems early in the morning on a Tuesday. It’s the first time I’ve done live radio in 10 years. So everybody out here is a little bit of a guinea pig and doing this and we appreciate our friends over Costas, for making this happen. We got some good folks here. You know, there’s a Dundalk Essex thing where you know who owns the towers, which side the bridge Iran or whatever. I’m from the good side of the Dundalk side of the bridge. But Dundalk in Essex is a rivalry except for trying to do good things with each other barber knock is here. She is a founder for churches for streets of hope. She came and showed me your shirt. I said, I know who you are. I got Otis here. I also got Ron here from the the churches for streets of welcome in how are you guys? Give me Tell me something good about what’s going on in Essex, Barbara.

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Barbara Nock  01:35

We have a wonderful, wonderful guys that are staying with us Christian church where our shelter is. They stay with us every night of the of the time between November through the end of April. And we serve them a delicious dinner every night. And they have chance to finally relax from being on the street. And so many of these guys who come to us are like feeling like a deer in headlights. I often say it’s like being a deer in headlights. And they come to us. And after a little while of realizing that they are safe now. They’re safe and they can relax and be with us every night. It’s as long as they want to during that time. And they can they can do what we asked which isn’t a lot except to be very respectful. And then we just take care of them for a while and give them see if we can move them ahead.

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:44

Well, how long has this been going on? Because I I said something to you about. I’m from Colgate near like Colgate, Colgate St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. My son was baptized at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. That was at the end of my street to St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. The Hansen family were the original folks there in the rectory in the 1970s I played stickball with the boys with Peter and Nathan Hanson. And so I grew up with those children that we played our football or baseball on their land. The Cub Scout Troop met there at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. So that was a big, big part of my community. My home. Wow.

Barbara Nock  03:18

Well, you know, that rectory is actually when it when it was became vacant. In 2000, I want to say 2010 It was vacant and the church was looking for some, you know, another group to use it. We were looking for a place to to put a shelter. And so we were in have been that the way we were established was as a rotating shelter going from one church to another. And, and we we had to do that for about 10 years. And St. Peters was the first the first place that we were actually able to stay for a number of months. They let us use the that rectory building for food most of that time in

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:07

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there so many times even they had three structures. Beautiful church. Yes, there was what appeared to be maybe like a school at one point or was built to be yes, a school was a small building. And then there was like a building where the Cub Scouts man was big. We played football next to it. But there’s a lot of building there literally. Yes, there’s probably built in the 40s or 50s. Right?

Barbara Nock  04:27

I think so. Yeah. It’s a beautiful building. And so they were just so that’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:32

right. That’s six by the way, that standoff. I’m going to tell you right now, from where I’m from is to

Barbara Nock  04:37

one two to four.

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Nestor J. Aparicio  04:38

That would be high. That’s how much I know about these. Yeah. So you consider that as six or No, you’ve moved into the We

Barbara Nock  04:48

Are we we are we are Colgate I mean that’s where at Colgate us. We are in Essex. We are actually in 21221 That’s where we are but but we reach out into Dundalk. We have collaboration with people in Dundalk. Some of our churches come from Dundalk. So it’s a basically Essex Dundalk, Middle River, and Rosedale

Nestor J. Aparicio  05:12

and Highlands and if you needed to be right.

Ron  05:17

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So that again, just to interject that I think the question you’re asking is that we started off over, she’s,

Nestor J. Aparicio  05:22

I’m having a mic issue with you, sir. But we’re gonna get it together go and keep going. Just

Barbara Nock  05:37

okay. So, yeah, I think Otis is, is going to say that we were there at St. Peters for a year or most of the year or must have a season I say a season rather than a year because our year is six months so.

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:42

And I obviously great work that you’re doing. Tell everybody how they can get involved where they find you on the internet

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07:00

wasn’t it?

Barbara Nock  07:11

website, then you can get lots of lots of information. And you can also connect with some of our links we have, I wanted to tell you about our new YouTube link. We’ve got a fabulous YouTube channel with a great of what we think is a great video that is a good introductory video. And, and then we’ll be posting we hope to be posting about every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, that’s our plan. We’ll also you’ll also get a link to our Amazon wishlist which is it’s a well we have you can you don’t have to use the Amazon but we have a wish list. And then we have also the Amazon wish list. So if you want to just do it the easy way and click to get something for us from Amazon. Oh my gosh, isn’t it for charity

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:07

to ask for exactly what you want? Right? It’s like getting something you don’t want or something you don’t need. Yeah,

Barbara Nock  08:13

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right. And we go through so much toilet paper, I had cane, Talia, and paper towels and things that you think, right? Huge, huge amount, and cleaning supplies, lots and lots of them. So if anybody wants to send us something through Amazon, they can or they can just look at our waste list and bring it in. And I’ll see what we’re doing. So we are there every night from 530 until you can come as late as eight to see our our operation. That’s, that’s when we are when we are actually open when our dinner hour is and we would we would accept donations, and we would have other other events going on during that time. And then we would have theirs, but then the guys go to bed pretty much after that. So and then they leave in the morning. So unless you call to make an appointment, those are the times when we’re open during the winter. So we would we would we would love to have people bring things that they have, you know, and we also accept clothing, if it’s in good condition in good condition, especially man’s clothing for the winter. And we need coats oh my gosh,

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:36

well, I’m just pay and I feel like maybe next year this time of year I would like I’ve done coats I’ve done food and we’ve been doing this 32 years. So this is our first charity initiative. It’s first time I’ve kind of taken the week and said all right, let’s have a live cause and live radio stinks. I want everybody to know that. I’m gonna go back to taping as soon as I can because I can’t forget to make Ron’s mic work but equipment here is driving me crazy. And I’m a little preoccupied with what I want We’ll ask you, because I’ve done so many things for coats, food, different people, where does this work begin for you in your heart. And because I’ve talked about Adly a bit, and you’re here talking about her love for animals, and clearly, you know, when we talk about churches taught by God, we’re talking about religion. Lutheran, I mean, I was raised Catholic, I spent yesterday talking about Our Lady of Fatima where I was confirmed in we that might be real Highlandtown. That’s real 21224 as opposed to 21222 or 21221, over the s6 side, but clearly, there’s a faith and a spiritual component behind your founding you being the founder of doing this and saying, I want to make a difference in the world.

Barbara Nock  10:40

Well, I just want to say I’m one of the founders. This was, and it was, it was really a God thing that pulled us together. Yeah, it always seems our churches, right. I

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:49

mean, you’re called to this right? Yeah,

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Barbara Nock  10:51

it’s a calling. And, and it’s all sorts of churches is not it? We are, we are so ecumenical, we are totally ecumenical. And we are so but about in 2009, there was a call out that went out from one of the churches back River, United Methodist Church, and they’re direct Director of Outreach, and the, the pastor invited representatives from all of the churches in the area, to come to a meeting, and see how we could work together to help people who are homeless. Yeah, especially those, but also other people. So we just are, that’s where it started. And then we, we met, and then we started meeting, it was we figured out some things we could do. But then we kept meeting and meeting. And we realized at that time, where after about two or three meetings, what’s really needed is a shelter for man. There wasn’t any, they they’re the only one that was around had just closed. And there, we really needed a shelter from man on the east side. So we, we said, Okay, well, we know how to do it, we can we can mobilize the churches, mobilize the volunteers, and we can get things started. And so with God’s help, we wrote letters, we got people from the churches involved. And we kept kept meeting and meeting and pretty soon, things came together. And we and then the county heard about us. And we were, so the county was very helpful to give us some funding for staffing. Because I’ll tell you, it was really one of the hard things was getting enough volunteers to stay off it, we could get people on one thing I

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:43

find with government, and I’ve had Johnny go on to for people, they need people like you. And when it comes to people who want to do the work, who are there to do the work and have been doing the work. I think that’s where government steps in and tries to to create a bond and a partnership with something that’s already existing. It’s already worked. So I’m glad to hear that you got that funding.

Barbara Nock  13:03

Right. And Johnny, Dad senior was was in on it, I’ve got a picture of him with our, with our group at the first celebration dinner, because he had really been instrumental in getting getting us funding for for that first year. And what was it was about 2010 Okay,

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:24

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so we’re gonna we were almost 15 years into this, then Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, no wonder I’ve heard of you, and people recommend you. Oh, sure. Wiley is director of ops, I want to ask you the the, and I hope your mics work. And if it’s not, I’m gonna stick my headset on you make your work. I’m still trying to figure out how to get across my work. But for you with with people around to come in and you say shelter. All right. And I talked to folks yesterday from a Baltimore outreach in different places. This is a this is a movement from here to there, right? When people come in, you’re, the biggest thing you can do is fine graduates to the program, right? And people are living their best life. And over 15 years, I’m sure you have more people like this. But that’s the gratifying part of work you do. I just get to sit here and talk about sports most of the day, and try to help you folks. But you see this through and you see from a shelter to a permanent situation in a better life.

Ron  14:12

Absolutely. And that’s the dream and aspiration of those who started this whole shelter guy. So we are so grateful to know that we can get people off the street and transition them into a place of their own

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:24

is working. Yeah, you’re working perfectly. So yeah,

Ron  14:27

so it’s gratifying knowing that once we open November 1, Oh, am APR 30. If we can have people come in, come into the shelter go through a case management program. And the first thing we would do is sit them down and identify their needs and all of that. And we can have targeted goals to work on particular things that they want done. So if a person comes in, for example, and says that I’ve been homeless for too long, and I want to please so our goal is to work with him make sure he gets a place if he doesn’t have an income, whether is applying for disability for him or getting him a job. That’s something we focus on Because once we get him into a place, we want to make sure he can sustain that place and sustain himself while he’s there. So that’s gonna be your main focus. So is different people coming in with different issues, some people come in wanting identification, some people coming in wanting food stamps, some people coming in with mental health issues that needs a referral, we make sure to get that going. And this is for

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Nestor J. Aparicio  15:17

men. Correct. This is for men. It’s very difficult men and women, right? You one or the other. In many, many cases, especially off street, we had a lot of folks yesterday talking about women’s shelter for battered women with children and a safe safe space, a safe place. I would think the same thing I’m Eastside. I mean, safety is also key for men as well to go to a place where they know they’re safe. Exactly

Ron  15:39

in our facility hosts 16 Men, at any given time, we have baths for 16 men, but throughout the six months period, sometimes we are able to see about 55 clients. But let me add to that we also run a Community Care program that runs after during the summer months. And during that time, we will see women as well. So yes, our targeted goal this man, but we also serve the community and we see see women and we assist them with whatever situation they’re going through and needs to be addressed.

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:09

I give a typical situation. Right? Is your mic working over there? See, I’m not hearing you though. That’s that’s I’m gonna give you my headset. No Have you give him your headset? There you go. Because I want to make things work around here. Things are crazy, because I want to get to meet Ron here. Tell me about Ron a little bit. Notice while he’s putting that on, make a little transition here. Good.

Ron  16:28

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I met I met ramp. Ryan, probably 2013 2014 When Ron came into the shelter,

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:36

so it’s 10 years ago that you came in Ron, is that correct? Yes, sir. I’m here and she didn’t want to talk anyway, she said they’re gonna do all the talk guys, which she wrote me. She told me that. Give me your story. Right. Even better to have your mic.

Otis  16:51

I mean, the story that I have that I love to shelter, and the shelter is my home. The shelters my home, when I first came into the shelter, I had no place to go. And no place to go. I came to the shelter. And it was so much love there. So where are you from?

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:11

Originally? Where’d you grow up? Where’d you got high school middle school?

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Otis  17:14

I went to Dumbo High School Lamar you

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:17

may you wants to go on there and when it was something now right? Yeah, he was to be my age. Yes. Um Well, that was the basketball way back

Otis  17:25

where I numbers where he personally you had Yes. Okay. Good mosey Boggs is mostly both skip wise on them guys that I know him personally. Um, Danny went to lumbar, with lumbar to high school with the elementary school. And I was there. So tell

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:39

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me your story. So you’re East Baltimore, East Baltimore.

Otis  17:44

And but the same body my family rejected me. I had no place to go. So I met I met to the shelter and they gave me so much love so much admiration there. And something like emotional abuse

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:59

beautiful. It’s beautiful. I’m back emotionally talking about I cried three times yesterday. I did I cried twice before 10am yesterday and I made people stop and so I want to make you smile because you’re here and you’re happy these days. But this

Otis  18:12

is this this is by Tobias Schuster hope this is my home. And these people are my family. And they took me in where everybody takes hold the back on me. It was really bad for me and it was to go so when I met I met the streets of hope they show me so much love so much compassion even I’m into my my apartment now I just move it to Taco towers in Jaipur row four months ago. And they was

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Nestor J. Aparicio  18:38

this your first home in 10 years. That’s your your

Otis  18:41

first home in 10 years. A first home and they came in they welcomed me into taco towers. They got my place and they helped me to get a taco towers. While I met

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:54

I knew giving you a microphone was gonna be good idea. See that? I knew that was gonna be the best partnership. Yeah,

Otis  18:59

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it’s a senior citizen building in tokoto. You’re barely senior

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:03

citizen. Yeah, yeah. Just a little bit. Yeah.

Otis  19:06

But but she’s of hope. Is my like I said this my family and this is my home. And it’s the only family I know. These guys right here. The only family I know. You know, and

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:18

that’s beautiful. I’m gonna get you some soup man. Today we’re gonna get this fixed. We have the director of Operation very emotional Otis to Wally’s here. Ron McBride is our beautiful story here, barber knock. They’re from churches for streets of hope. They say it’s Essex but it really kind of started doc doc, because Colgate stare. So I’m looking at a couple I mean, you know, those begged me to say, look, I don’t even talk nice about Patapsco or Sparrows Point because I’m Dundalk. You know, the story that Ron has just for you. Oh, just I mean, obviously you do this work you got you guys. Let’s see. It’s 1117 and I shed my first year here this morning. So you got me going. You see this every day topic these 16 beds you talk about a success story. Where are you on the 16 beds 16 Different people will be in there. As far as I would call it graduation I maybe that’s the wrong word for it. But to move on to another level, because, you know, Ron talks about coming in and what you’ve done for him, you want to have 16 More crying guys here next 16 years like him, right? How do we get from here to there?

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Ron  20:16

Well, like I said, for success in, the person has to come in. Well, this is a good man here. You can tell that right away, definitely, definitely. So he comes in and we will sit down and talk to him because we want to be able to meet his needs. We don’t design a program for him, we work with him work along with the person when they come in. So the first thing like I say, is to sit down and do an intake and then assess from there as to what the goals are. And when we first met him, he came in and explained to us, we welcome him, like we do to every other client that comes in, and we work with him what he needs to do in particular, Ron, just to address Ross situation he came in, we knew he was only fat in abandon abandoned by his family, we rally around him and supported him and got him a job he worked, got him a couple of apartments on the rooms that he rented and eventually was able to apply for permanent housing for him and that’s how he moved into tactical tal. So the program is to work with them design around their goals and work with them incrementally until we can get them to the next step. But the final goal is to transition the person from the streets to a permanent place.

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:24

How can people help you? You got fundraisers? You got things going on right now? Yeah. Oh, hold on here. Well, I’ll give her the headset back. I’m gonna have her yell about this. And I’ll give you that sit back because I want to get this thing work. And before it’s all a white square, I’m gonna get this microphone work and it’s Mike for has just been the decimetre lay. All right, sweetheart breakfast. This is this is coming up this week. We better get on this right away here. Raise your February 10. This Saturday eighth tool. I’m not doing anything this Saturday, back river United Methodist Church 544 back river neck road. So my parents were married in July of 1945 at Mount Carmel church. They spent their formative years at what was called Mars estates, which is now a second development on a corner. Chosen hands corners for anybody saying I knew schooler would know and chose dance corners. So you are pretty close to pizza. John’s is what you would say right back.

Barbara Nock  22:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you get on back forever neck road and you keep going past the past. I gotta Google you figure out exactly where it is. Just past Food Lion. Okay, so

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:32

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you’re going on pass pizza John’s alright. Yeah, you’re

Barbara Nock  22:36

almost no, no, not that far. All right, but it’s but it

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:40

is school. Correct. There you go. All right. And when

Barbara Nock  22:43

you get Pat open, you get to flew by and when you get to food line, keep looking on your right, slow down. And that’s that’ll be background for United Methodist Church where we did our first meeting. Our first meeting was at Bank River. United Methodist Church,

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Nestor J. Aparicio  23:02

my executive producer my son is over here wanting to know the menu so I’ll let him know because he’s available Saturday. You don’t get a bed at eight in the morning, but we’ll get him over there. Made to Order omelets. French toast butter syrup, Jelly linked sausage. hashbrowns juicy coffee just everything I’m gonna want made the order omelet that’s about me right there. You can email RSVP at churches for S O H s streets of Hope s o h.org. Or you give a call 443-632-5433 You can pay at the door donations help pay for the guy’s breakfast and they’re gladly accepted. You could buy somebody like Rob want to buy Ron breakfast right? I’m gonna buy him lunch right now. I’m getting whatever he wants. Your cost is so it’s also 15 bucks. $20 for singles. It is the sweetheart. Sweetheart this week. It’s Valentine’s week. Sweet Sweet are for breakfast. This is this Saturday at 11am back river United Methodist Church. I am so glad to have met the churches for streets of hope folks from Colgate originally, as pointed out in the Hansard family over there and all of our friends and Matt had so much fun at the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. I’m glad that it’s still inspiring people inspiring good things happening here in a community even if it’s happening in Essex and thunder we need good things happen in Essex to

Barbara Nock  24:18

yes, we’re all over the place. People think I don’t

Nestor J. Aparicio  24:21

get along with us. Thank you very much for coming by. I appreciate it. Keep up the great work, Barbara. She thought you weren’t gonna do any talking. Rhonda got run stop crying. I’m gonna give him some soup. We’re gonna do 5050 We’ll do half Maryland crab cream a crab. It is a cup of Super Bowl. This is exactly why I’m bringing people together here this week talking about good things. The Maryland Food Bank. We have a local pantry here we have so many good people doing amazing stuff. I want to make sure that I get this right. The local pantry is the St John’s food pantry. Karen is going to be here later with Whitney John, for the friends for supper ministry. We’re raising food for them today in the Maryland food bank, but you can also donate to our friends here at the churches for streets and hope Dad enjoy their breakfast with that I did leave everything in this barber to get everything in other than making Mike for work for Ron and my good. I

Barbara Nock  25:07

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think so. I think so I want to make sure that everybody knows. Reminds

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:12

me last week so we were talking to me this week.

Barbara Nock  25:18

Don’t forget to go to our YouTube channel. Okay. All right, check out our YouTube channel and in our website, that’ll be great.

Ron  25:26

So do we also on Facebook and Instagram? Check us out at Facebook.

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:30

I can’t believe my favorite guest of the week Ron I pulled the microphone off his enemy, but you’re the best guest I’ve had this week so far. So we day two I’m gonna hear a better story by Friday, I promise you but I appreciate that. I love to skip why’s reference in monkeys. A buddy of mine monkey comes on all the time. I gotta find Wingate Ross. These guys get them on at some point too. Thank you very much. They’re in Essex. Give him some love down there back river neck road. I’m Nestor. We’re doing this on behalf of the Maryland Food Bank. We’re Costas all day to day that’s Dundalk. With Laura Ville. Tomorrow. We’ll be Coco’s Thursday. We’re going to be out of state fair in Catonsville. And on Friday by then I’ll have Mike for work. I’m Mike for working in five minutes, because it’s gonna drive me crazy till I get it work. And I’m Nestor. We are WNS the am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive