The downtown story of Baltimore Outreach Services with Gregg Landry and Yvonne Terry. Located in a church less than a block from the Inner Harbor, this shelter and safe home for women and children can use your assistance during hard times.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
greg, people, baltimore, years, transfers, charity, wife, outreach, live, women, good, talk, children, week, church, services, betamax, families, towson, city
SPEAKERS
Gregg Landry, Nestor J. Aparicio, Yvonne Terry
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back. We are wn S T A and 5070, Towson Baltimore. We are at fade Lee’s at the Lexington market. We are doing live radio for the first time in 10 years. I have one of my tech guys Greg Landry here that if anything breaks down, at least during this segment, Tulsa transfers can can fix things here. We’re doing a couple of Super Bowl winners crabcake row, we’re fade these today will be Costas all day Tuesday. Coco’s all day Wednesday, Thursday at State Fair all day. And then on Friday at Pappas up in Cockeysville. correctly, Andrew, I’m gonna have my voice at 459 What is your prediction? For me walking out of Pappas alive at 501 on Friday afternoon coffee spill,
Gregg Landry 00:42
you’ve got this, you’ve got this. This is This is years of training. You’re going to be all set. You’re going to be walking out of there with a great voice and a big smile on your face, I’m sure. All right.
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:51
Well, Greg has been my friend for the beginning of time since the last time we got together. He lost his father in law. I lost my friend and Harvey Meyers, who was the Emerald tavern. One of my first sponsors put a satellite dish on my roof. So we’re gonna talk about Harvey a little bit. Greg owns Taos and transfers, Blue Rock productions. You did something really momentous in that that this week was solved. You were the videographer of all of my free the bird the bird commercials back in the day. It was 18 years ago took me 18 years to get rid of these people. You think I’m not going to enjoy the Orioles? You think I’m not gonna go down here and have a crab cake and walk to Camden Yards when David Rubenstein owns it? Come on. It’s your big week.
Gregg Landry 01:35
You were the first person I thought of when this when I heard this. Well, big news has
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:39
been my friend forever. And Greg reached out to me a number of years ago when I started doing Bill Cole after my wife was 1114 and 15. I decided I wanted to do something called a community and charity series, Bill Cole said I’ll sponsor that you’re gonna stop talking about sports all sponsoring. So Bill gave me a coffee mug and I went out and said anybody who has a charity or community cause Tell me about it. Let’s promote it on the air. Let’s do a segment we can talk about you’re busy talking sports like football, baseball, whatever you want. Joe Flacco Lamar J. Weber we’ll talk about but let’s talk about lifting the community. And this was the precursor to Baltimore positive which came along and 18. So 16 and 17. I was doing community conversations, and Greg’s a listener, he always tells me when things are wrong with ads. We’re out of date, and we’re hoping we’re listing at 915 This morning, we went off the air, but that’s alright, we’re fixed now. You told me you’re like, my charity is right next door to where you live. And I live at the Inner Harbor. I lived at the Inner Harbor for 19 years, we lived at Harbor court, which is 10. East Lee Street. Big. It’s a big brick building right at the Inner Harbor right behind the harbor court hotel. And you told me of a group and my wife and I have donated to this group. My wife took bags of stuff over. You said to me there this is for unfortunate women and children who don’t have a home is pleased to live and voluntary is your guests here today. So Greg, I will let you because we’ve done a lot of background on this before Vaughn showed, right? Yes, I gotta get your mic on. There. Yeah.
Yvonne Terry 03:13
How are ya? I’m great. Nestor. Thank you for thanks
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:17
for having me back in my old neighborhood, because this was my old neighborhood here. But Greg, for years you’ve been involved with with this charity
Gregg Landry 03:24
for a long time. Women with children, a very difficult population for the homeless services. It’s there’s a lot involved. I mean, it’s you have to there’s special accommodations. You have to educate the children. There’s so many different things that need to be done. And they and Baltimore Outreach Services has done it so well for so many years. My wife Susan and I are just involved as much as we can as patrons. We volunteer, we’ve both been on the board. And it’s just a great organization with a an incredibly important need. And here in the city. This
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:58
is a church literally right in the back of my Yeah, it literally was 50 paces from my front door. Like there was a building that was built between the church and my my and my building years ago. But we have walked things down to your place because it was the nearest closest my way and say we don’t need that. But there’s there’s a lady a block away that can put that in the bag. We’ll take that over there. So we have brought things to your doorstep several times
Yvonne Terry 04:26
701 South Charles Street.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:28
Well tell me about your journey in this and your role in this and what we’re doing there. I moved out of the neighborhood two years ago last week. So I live out the Towson area now but I’m sure you’re still doing great work down there.
Yvonne Terry 04:38
We are. We are we’ve been doing it for 20 years now. And it is a safe haven for homeless women and children. And we provide case management supportive services along with the safe environment and a warm bed and clothing and hygiene, all of those things that they might need. How does someone
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:01
find you? Or you find them referrals and need basis? I’m sure you just don’t have women with their children coming up banging on your door knowing about you. Maybe you do now. Yeah, now, but the awareness needs to be there. Right?
Yvonne Terry 05:16
That’s true. That’s true. And so we are on a number of lists around the city. And we also work with the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services. So we’re in their network and in their database, the police department know about us, the Johns Hopkins Bayview knows about us. So we were in that network. So we get referrals from the hospital, we get referrals from the police. We get walk ins, people walk up to our door, literally, and knock on the door and say this is our situation. We get network from other places like my sister’s place. Sure. Yeah. So it’s a number of ways that people find us now we don’t go we don’t broadcast broadcast broadcast. Well, you’re not a big safety. Yeah, the safety of our home, and how
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:07
many people can you support at any one given time, and I would think for more than anything, it’s a graduation program. It’s not a permanent situation. But it’s a transition place where professionals like you can help people who have found themselves in a really, really awful circumstance.
Yvonne Terry 06:27
That’s right, Nestor, we have up to 35 beds, where we can house women with children, we try to focus on women with children, because there are only three shelters that accept children in the city. That’s why I know
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:44
is difficult. It’s very difficult to take care of children environment.
Yvonne Terry 06:46
Yeah, I don’t know, for their safety, maybe. But just us and to others.
Gregg Landry 06:54
So if you’re thinking about picking like a homeless shelter for men, and which is a huge need in the city, you’ve got an opportunity where you can maybe put, like, as many rows and bunks as you can fit in a room. But families and women they have special needs, and you want to be able to have some sort of privacy and that that feeling of security for a family. So you need the right amount of space need the right amount of staffing. And there’s just a lot of moving dynamics that you have to deal with. So it’s difficult. That’s why we appreciate that boss stepped up and was trying to fill this gap and an important need in the city. And they do it and do it really well. Boss, boss. Go ahead Baltimore. Outreach Services. It’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:32
easy to remember that yeah, ba ba
Yvonne Terry 07:34
BLS.
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:36
Why did you get involved in this, Greg, I’ve known you forever. And we’re going to talk a little bit about Harvey and your and your wife. And sure. You know, all of that. But I’ve known you a long time. I don’t know. At what point you reached. I think it was when I was doing my community charity series. Maybe seven, eight years ago. You said to me, I got a place that you need to feature. Yep. And that’s how all of this happened this week. I yelled out hey, you got to Cherry come see me. I didn’t inbound anybody. Everybody inbound, did me. But you were inbound. The mean the beginning. How did? How did you find out like out you were in the you were on the west side of town, northwest side of town where your business was? You live in the northeast side of tabs. Right? How do you find a charity at the Inner Harbor? How did this come about? Well, we
Gregg Landry 08:18
used we used to live in the neighborhood. We lived in South Baltimore, down on belt street. So know that Yeah. So we have a
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:27
culture, you know, suburbia, culture Parkville. Guys,
Gregg Landry 08:30
you know, he has cultured.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:31
So you lived in the city
Gregg Landry 08:35
in the city for nine years. And so as we’re both my boys were born here in the city. And so Susan has been a longtime member of Christ Lutheran Church, her grandmother went to this church, and this, this wasn’t an a ministry of Christ Lutheran Church, they had a space. The undercroft of the church is where this started, and still is today. So it started off as a church ministry. It is now its own separate entity living in the basement of the church. But it is a church though, right?
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:03
If the church this church is actually
Yvonne Terry 09:06
the shelter is right underneath the sanctuary. It’s like a blessing for the families. Yeah,
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:12
that’s a beautiful thing. So
Gregg Landry 09:13
it’s right there.
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:13
What kind of church is it?
Gregg Landry 09:15
I don’t even know. Christ. Church, Lutheran Church. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:20
wasn’t aware. I mean, I see it and my wife’s always been the one that’s taken stuff over to you. And, and basic goods and she thought, we don’t need this anymore. Someone else’s blankets, stuffed women’s clothing. She’s done all of that. We’ve donated to Goodwill and other places as well, but you were a block away. She’s like, I’m not saving that for good. We’re taking that down right now. Yes. So in your place, give us a current look at your place and how people can help you what kinds of things can people donate to boss Baltimore outreach services,
Yvonne Terry 09:52
okay, so we are homeless shelter for women and children. So naturally, we could use feminine hygiene I mean, all kinds of things like that. Cleaning products, those types of things. clothing, blankets, when I say clothing, maybe seasonal clothing, things that are in season for the kids, socks, under clothes, those kinds of things that families you know, would use. How long
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:18
would a woman with her children who comes to you comes today? It’s early February. tough situation. Bad, no help they come they move in with you. Maybe no job? Where do you begin on a typical, and not that anything’s typical? Or it’s terrible that this is typical. But where do you begin in the process of, we want to see you a month to Monster.
Yvonne Terry 10:48
We, when they come in, the first thing we do is, say, take a breath. Take a breath, feel safe, feel warm, okay, now, yeah, you’re okay, you’re gonna be okay. Many of the women and children are either living in their car or sleeping outside, or whatever the case may be. So we want them to feel like okay, you’re safe. Just take a breath. You know, kind of get your control back sleeping outside, man. It’s February. Yeah, February. Yeah, get your control back. And then once they do that kind of understand, okay, this is a safe place for me, because they’ve got all kinds of trauma going on. There’s all kinds of trauma they have
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:28
as to how they got there. And a lot of times, they don’t want to share that. That’s, you know,
Yvonne Terry 11:32
that’s right, right, right away, right, right, right away. And then we have a case manager and excellent clinical case manager that works with them. And we put them on, like an action plan, so to speak, strategy, they go into the system of Homeless Services, so they can be matched with housing. So hopefully, when they leave the shelter, and nine times out of 10, this is the case, they go to permanent housing. So but before they get to permanent housing, we have to work through all the barriers that cause their homelessness in the first place. And so sometimes that takes time, sometimes it’s six months, three months, nine months, sometimes even a year. But we know that people
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:11
that have spent a year yes, okay, yes.
Yvonne Terry 12:15
timeline on this, you know, there’s no timeline, the goal is to have the women to leave the shelter and never come back and never come back, right? And be in a safe place and be solid and be how many
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:28
years you’ve been with Basava, five years, five years. So I would think through five years, you’ve had some beautiful lady that was torn and tattered, he came to you. And three years later, they come back. This is my eight year old is now 11. Yes, she’s now in school, I got a job we’re living over in East Baltimore. Yes,
Yvonne Terry 12:48
that’s it. And that’s why we do the work we do. Right? When right? Yes, we just have four families moved from the shelter into permanent housing. And so we also do outreach where we follow the families for up to three years. So we kind of keep tabs on them so that they don’t return to homelessness, and we can provide them with the services they need.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:08
Feeling a level of success. Yes, all these years, right. I mean, all these years in how many years? You’ve been doing it, Greg? I know it’s at least seven or eight for me,
Gregg Landry 13:19
is being boss. Yeah. 20 days.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:24
From the time you were living downtown, yes. Well, no wonder. This is why when I did this, I knew you were on my original spreadsheet. I’m honored. Well, what happened was I have an inbox of like, from 16 1718 that everybody that reached me during those years, I tried to do one segment and you would you come on three, four times a year. I mean, Greg, so tell me what do you really do in the real world give a plug for Towson transfer right now. I got this loaded Castro. I got all this new stuff here.
Gregg Landry 13:54
Yeah, Towson transfers is not a real restaurant. It’s a toss transfers. You have old media, you have videotapes, film slides, yes. Any kind of pictures, we transfer that to digital so they can preserve you can rediscover and preserve these memories that you’ve had and I heard my ad on the way over here this morning. Thank you
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:13
dude. I did I had just played I was out in Carson City Nevada two weeks ago and don’t ask but it was fun. So I was out there and I was alone and sort of bored and I drove by this antique shop that said record store and you know I collect Pacific a belt buckles today I have my yes because I want people to say yes, this is my 1970s my Yes, Tommy combo love this one. So I’m out in this record store looking at music and stuff and and they had all sorts of old stuff. And I saw an actual Betamax. Like a Betamax player and it said rental top still plays and I’m like, Well, what would I stuff in it? You know, I never had a Betamax. I had a VHS. Betamax was weird. But
Gregg Landry 14:58
you I have a Betamax.
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:59
I know you do you have everything I do. You’re like a museum of leftover old toys of electronics.
Gregg Landry 15:07
No yeah and they work and people come in with these formats can you do this do that get
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:11
an eight channel Mackie board that used to run this thing here it’s yours might have a little coffee in it from back in the day but I gotta wrote a key Aren’t you proud of me getting all these bills live I’m making it happen right now. I love it. Thank you. Appreciate you but your your Mr. tech guy
Gregg Landry 15:28
so you appreciate all I do. I love it. It’s very very good to system you have here I brought this home
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:33
Yvonne and I was setting all this up to practice having boss on home wherever and all my friends and crabcakes free cup of soup and all that. And my cat got up and looked at all the equipment and she was staring at the road caster because the road if I if I could show the road caster it really is kind of pretty colorful. It’s it’s sort of this really weird, colorful, this device. I just bought this thing and I’m thinking to myself, when did light bright become like a it looks like a light. What I thought it was It looks like a Tonka toy. It’s beautiful. What’s going on with the electronics. It
Yvonne Terry 16:09
looks like my calendar, my calendar, it’s colored. All
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:11
I know is my cat got up there and looked at it and thought it might be food. Baltimore outreach services, they’re helping great people in the community. They’re down at the Inner Harbor. They’re inside of a church below a church attached to what used to be where I live that the Inner Harbor, you want to give to something that these are great folks that do a we’ve given to them. My wife’s dropped off a whole bunch of different stuff for ladies and their children. Greg Landry is my friend from tasks and transfers. They are his charity. He is my sponsor, so we’re trying to do some good things, right. He said about the Oreos, Raven 21. He got both
Gregg Landry 16:44
just over the moon. Just fantastic. Very exciting.
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:48
Original free, the birds videographer. Did you ever think the birds would be fried? Because I had a moment this week. 48 hours after the news broke. The news broke Tuesday I went sat on a yoga mat. I came back and talked about it. Like it might happen. And then Thursday night, I was pouring a drink. I was home. And I thought to myself, they might let me back in. Like I might literally by the end of the summer, be sitting next to Luke. And the first thing my wife says is you better get a damn free hot dog. And that’s all my wife said. But what’s the first thing you do? I want to see you get a free hot dog. And then looks like the hot dogs aren’t free anymore. So it’s been 18 years. You know, for you being down at the harbor and being tides lift all but like, yeah, people come downtown. It’s gonna help your charity as well. Right? Yeah. For everybody that participates. The city’s been a little lonely in recent years, like we left to but not for that reason. But I like seeing vibrancy downtown. I like seeing people walk past your church, for reals gear and add the Rajahmundry you feel a difference in the game? We
Yvonne Terry 17:59
do and the city gives back to us. Those give back to us. The Ravens get back to us good that the neighborhood Federal Hill gets back to us.
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:08
All right. Well, if people want to reach to you, what’s the way to find you on the web? What’s the way to get in touch with you? So they can be a part of like Greg would be a good ambassador for what you do at Baltimore outreach.
Yvonne Terry 18:18
We’re at Baltimore outreach dot o RG Baltimore
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:21
outreach dot o RG that’s it. Yeah. There’s,
Gregg Landry 18:25
there’s I mean, there’s describes the program, there’s videos that I’ve produced for them to kind of like show the successful videos are gonna be good. They aren’t good, right? Because, um, that’s professional, you know, you’re talking about these, you know, the success stories, but you know, we’ve been able to highlight some of those success stories. And so it’s, it’s a feel good, you know, opportunity. Thanks
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:41
for bringing some goods down. Craig Landry tassel travel, Chelsea transfers. Towson travel was chip my God I’m thinking back in the day moment of silence for CHIP my friend via Terry’s here, she’s in Baltimore outreach services, you can find that Baltimore outreach.org You get a tech it’s like Oprah you get a lottery ticket. You get a lottery ticket 10 times the cash are the ones that send us out on the road as well. When donation I got my phone floppy hat or 866 90 nation they got doors as well as Jiffy Lube. Multi care, come on down our friends. Wise markets inspired me to do this for the Maryland food bank. And I got this hanging on one of my computers here. Please donate today. A cup of Super Bowl pretty clever than you think. Pretty good. Well done. I’m waiting for that C and D. It cash accepted the Maryland Food Bank. We’re here we’re serving it up. And I smell the crab cakes. Michelle Bresnik while she was my wife’s coach from there goes my hero, cancer survivor, leukemia survivor, lawyer to the superstars. She’s here and we’re gonna talk to her next. Thanks for coming by y’all appreciate you. Glad I got a chance to meet you. Greg Greg Landry stepping out on Nesta. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We’re doing live radio. We’re faking it till we make it. Stay with us. We’re Baltimore positive.com
