Finding the history and center of community support at St. Francis in Reservoir Hill

It was years in the making, finally getting Torbin Green of St. Francis Community Center to visit for a Faidley’s crab cake for the holidays. Turns out it’s a busy job serving 20,000 folks in West Baltimore with youth programs, family love and food distribution in West Baltimore. Let him tell you about the pride in the work they do and its impact in the neighborhood over generations.

Nestor Aparicio discusses his Baltimore community tour, highlighting local businesses and personal health updates. He introduces Torbin Green, Executive Director of St. Francis Neighborhood Center, who shares the center’s history, services, and impact. St. Francis serves 20,000 people annually, including 108 youth in after-school programs and 67 families through food distribution. The center offers educational programs, including cooking classes, music lessons, and computer science. Funding comes from foundations, individual donations, and grants. Green emphasizes the importance of after-school programs and workforce development. The center also hosts events and has an apiary producing 160 pounds of honey.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Purchase honey from the center’s apiary.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Bring a donation or contribution to support the center’s programs.
• [ ] Visit the St. Francis Neighborhood Center’s spring celebration event in April.

Nestor Aparicio’s Introduction and Segment Overview

• Nestor Aparicio welcomes listeners to WNST 1570 AM, highlighting the show’s focus on Baltimore positivity.
• He mentions various sponsors, including the Maryland Lottery and GBMC, and shares personal anecdotes about his health and lifestyle.
• Nestor discusses upcoming events and segments, including a visit to Deep DiPasquale’s and a discussion about Ed Lauer’s heart transplant.
• He introduces Torbin Green, the executive director of St. Francis Neighborhood Center, and reminisces about their first meeting.

Torbin Green’s Introduction and Initial Interaction

• Nestor and Torbin Green recall their first meeting at an Irish bar during opening day, with Nestor humorously remembering Torbin’s introduction.
• Torbin shares his background and role at St. Francis Neighborhood Center, emphasizing its long history and community impact.
• Nestor expresses his admiration for the center and its unique position in Baltimore, highlighting its importance in the community.
• They discuss the center’s after-school program and its role in keeping kids off the streets and providing educational opportunities.

St. Francis Neighborhood Center’s History and Programs

• Torbin provides a brief history of St. Francis Neighborhood Center, founded by the Catholic Church in 1963 and its continued presence despite challenges.
• He highlights the center’s commitment to the community, including its after-school program and other educational initiatives.
• Nestor and Torbin discuss the center’s impact on the community, including success stories of former students who have returned to help.
• They talk about the center’s wraparound services, including food distribution, diapers, and feminine products, and its role as a community hub.

Community Engagement and Funding

• Torbin explains the center’s funding sources, including foundations, individual giving, and grants from organizations like MSDE.
• He emphasizes the importance of unrestricted grants that can be used for various needs, as opposed to restrictive grants.
• Nestor and Torbin discuss the center’s need for additional funding to support workforce development programs and internships.
• They talk about the center’s efforts to help individuals, including those coming back from incarceration, find employment and succeed.

Impact of Technology and AI on Community Centers

• Nestor shares his excitement about the potential of AI to help underfunded community organizations like St. Francis.
• Torbin discusses how AI is already being used at the center, including for grant writing and strategic planning.
• They talk about the importance of learning and embracing new technologies to improve community services.
• Nestor emphasizes the potential of AI to make smaller organizations more efficient and impactful, despite concerns about job displacement.

Holiday Activities and Community Events

• Torbin shares details about the center’s holiday activities, including the Giving Tree initiative where families receive donated gifts.
• They discuss the center’s after-school program schedule and other youth programs, including cooking classes and music lessons.
• Nestor and Torbin talk about the center’s upcoming spring celebration event in April, which will be held at the center.
• They highlight the center’s location in Reservoir Hill, near the zoo, and its role as a focal point for the community.

Personal Anecdotes and Community Connections

• Nestor and Torbin share personal stories, including Nestor’s experiences with crab cakes and his interactions with various community members.
• They discuss the importance of community centers in providing essential services and support to local residents.
• Torbin shares his passion for beekeeping and the center’s apiary, which produces honey for the community.
• Nestor expresses his appreciation for Torbin’s work and the center’s impact on the community, emphasizing the need for continued support and funding.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

St. Francis Community Center, after school program, food distribution, community hub, wraparound services, youth engagement, workforce development, grant writing, AI integration, community events, Reservoir Hill, Baltimore positivity, Maryland lottery, GBMC, holiday activities.

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SPEAKERS

Torbin Green, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 tasks of Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. We’re positively here in the beautiful, world famous Lexington markets. All brought to you, my friends at the Maryland lottery. Ever even scratch offs to give away? I’ll be giving these away here. Also have some delicious candy cane scented tickets. My whole bags will smell like peppermint next week, by the time I get to cost this and up to Gertrude, we’re here at fayley’s license to markets, also brought to you by friends at GBMC who have saved my life with a colonoscopy. So there’s my PSA for everybody out there. All you boys out there, make sure how old are you? Torben, I am 50. You have a colonoscopy. I had it when I was 45 There you go. You’re good for a little bit while. Boy, they told me, seven years So my thanks to my friends at GBMC. And you know, since the colonoscopy thing, I felt a lighter, I feel better, I feel safer, I feel healthier. I just been eating. So I’m on an eating tour. Faith leads is the first stop. We’re gonna be at deep DiPasquale’s on Thursday. Gonna be at honeys in Hale, Thorpe, Friday next week. Cost us on Thursday with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Regina shock, my buddy John Allen, a whole bunch people are going to be talking about my pal, Ed Lauer and his heart transplant giving him some you know, you know Ed, right? Well, well, is there a better holiday story than than Ed Lauer having his life saved?

Torbin Green  01:14

It’s really tough to beat what’s been going on with that situation, right? So that’s

Nestor Aparicio  01:18

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why I’m going to honor that next week. And it can’t come out, but we’re gonna love that up. I might try to get him to get him to zoom in next Friday, we’re with my cousin John shields, Chef shields, up at Gertrude with Dan Rogers, going to talk about his 1966 play. And then we end things with our friends at Planet Fitness and Timonium, one of our longtime sponsors, opening a new location near my house, all sorts of cool beds to lay in and colors to look at, and massages to get, and weights to lift safely. Of course, at Planet Fitness. I’m looking forward. That’s 22nd All right. Torber Green is here. He is the executive director of all things St Francis Neighborhood Center. I’ve done several segments on the St Francis Neighborhood Center, including with Christy, your wife. I’ve done it with employees of yours, I would say you’re ducking me, but I run into you every damn place I am in a city you got me. And I do remember when you introduced yourself to me. Do you remember that moment on opening day? Do you remember this at all? I was profane. Do you remember this? Or do you not remember this? I don’t remember it. I was about five or six opening days ago. I want to say, Was it during the plague? It may have been in 20 or 21 I was downtown drinking on opening day. I probably was here to start with. I was gonna crab cake here. I’m pretty 1111, 30. You were drinking. I was in the what’s the Irish bar over in a neighborhood that’s a little Irish bar back in Otterbein in the neighborhood.

Torbin Green  02:44

What’s it called? It’s on the tip of my tongue, it’s an Irish joint.

Nestor Aparicio  02:47

Yeah, not mulligans. That’s that’s a buffalo joint, either way. I went in with a friend, had some my Essex Goombas in town over there to Sullivan folks, I remember now, and I was in line to get a beer, and Jen Renne Ham was there from Maroon. It’s a bunch of people in a room that I knew, and people knew me. It’s opening day that the band, a great band, was playing out in the street, the 90s band that does the Doc Martin and the flannel, flannel. Yeah, yeah, Doc Martin was playing asteri. So I’m in and you’re such a unique looking character, and on radio, people would not know, but you have this very masculine silver beard that sort of rolls down. And you’re a unique looking cat, you know? And you came up to me and you said the thing that it’s probably I wasn’t offended, but I don’t I’m looking for synonym for offended. But people love to come up to me, and my wife loves it. They come up say, hey, Nestor, I went to high school with me. You remember me? And I’d be like, Yeah, you look a little familiar. And then they asked the million dollar question, which is,

Torbin Green  03:57

what’s my name? That was me.

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Nestor Aparicio  04:00

So when they ask, What’s my name, if I don’t know, I mean, unless you’re a Robert or rob or a dick or a Richard or a Dickie or a Rick, you know, there could be some, but you only one name, so it’s, it’s a pass fail question, when they asked me that, and it puts me on a defensive especially if I don’t know their name, because I know I’m working backwards. Backwards. Hey, I’m Eddie from high school. But you said to me, Do you know who I am? Do you know my name? Whatever you said to me, it was kind of funny. I’m in line. I’m like, Yeah, you’re Torben effing green, is what I said to you. Yes, you did. Now, were you shocked that I knew who you were? A little Yeah, yeah. All right, so you’re Torben effing green. So talk about who tour, but effing green is here from st friend. The F was for st,

Torbin Green  04:43

Francis. The F is for Francis.

Nestor Aparicio  04:48

See, you thought I wasn’t gonna give you a hard time. You were supposed to come on a show a couple you’ve gotten sick a couple of times. Yeah, let’s be honest. I mean, you run this beautiful community center that I haven’t visited, but you’ve invited me over. I know you do your thing. Is over there a couple times a year, I’m gonna come see you. We’re doing unique things over there. Let’s talk about saying, I mean, just in general, I had Maddie. You’re talking about all these great assets in Baltimore, right? Like markets, things that are unique to Baltimore, even things like the Key Bridge we have we’re working on. You know, Baltimore such a unique place, but community centers that go back as far as your

Torbin Green  05:20

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63 we’re iconic in our area, yes, yeah.

Nestor Aparicio  05:23

And, and people are driven by it 100 times on the way to the zoo, right? Like, literally, right, yeah. So let’s, let’s talk about your place and where it is, and the whole history of because I’ve told this story a couple times, and I think it’s one of the most inspiring stories in the city.

Torbin Green  05:36

I’m gonna do the quick version. You know, it was back in the day it was founded by the Catholic Church. Within a year, the Catholic Church wanted to back out, but the priest there did not want to leave. He promised he would stay there. This is in 63 this is in 63 okay?

Nestor Aparicio  05:53

And times are tough in Baltimore at 63 right? Change, changing community where you were right.

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Torbin Green  05:58

There was a specific riot going on at that time, too around that time. So Martin MLK, uh huh. So you know, they wanted him to leave and pull him out, and he decided he stayed. He stayed until he passed away in 2620 11. So the community really understands and respects a St Francis Neighborhood Center, because we just don’t leave the community. We don’t go in there and do what we want to do and leave. We listen to the community. One of the reasons we listen to community is our after school program. There’s so there’s such a need for after school programming in that area. We have another

Nestor Aparicio  06:31

way to keep kids off the street in the future. Absolutely occupy their minds today. Yeah, there’s some water. It like a tree.

Torbin Green  06:38

Man, so many data on how having after school programming will help your help you throughout the years. And we have some, so many success stories of like kids come I’m at the point where I’m having kids come back from college when I when I first started. How long you been at St Francis? 13 plus years now.

Nestor Aparicio  06:54

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All right, so you mean you you were finding eight year old children that are now 21 year old, men and women, literally, right? Yes. What could be more gratifying than that? Torvin, that’s

Torbin Green  07:05

Asia, one of my students come back and want to work for us. And, you know, unfortunately, I didn’t have the funding to bring her in, but it’s like, wow. I remember her as a, like, super small, and now she’s a grown adult. Let’s put her to work. You know, exactly you help

Nestor Aparicio  07:21

raise her, you know. So what do you do at St Francis center? Give everybody the lowdown of this. Because, I mean, you’ve

Torbin Green  07:26

everything, okay, but I can get more.

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Nestor Aparicio  07:29

I would say from it’s a wraparound service place. We talk about wraparound services. That’s what this is, right outside of schools. This is the next place you come and I look, I do a lot of work with the y as well. You know, trying to bring community. It’s a community center. Brings community together, right?

Torbin Green  07:49

Oh, yeah, it’s the focal point of that area. And when you drive by and you see the distribution lines, or you see the kids coming and going, acting like it’s their home, you know, it’s, it’s that whole feel, and it’s something you don’t you want to duplicate this in other areas.

Nestor Aparicio  08:03

How many people you servicing over there? How many folks are in and out of your community center in any given

Torbin Green  08:08

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in a year, to around 20,000 people in and out. We have about 108 youth in our after school program right now, with 67 families, all ages, right? All ages, K through K through 12, now through 12th grade. Okay, all right, yeah, so and then. And then, if you start adding up, you know, we have about 7080, people in line for our distribution twice a week. You know, there’s a lot of people coming through St Francis day to day. We say distribution. You mean food, right? I mean food and resources. It’s not just food. It could be diapers. It could be feminine products. That’s what I mean by community pantry in a lot of ways, right? Yeah, oh yeah, community hub, if you want to call it that. So for you

Nestor Aparicio  08:54

funding and where it comes from, and how many people you have there, and I’ve met some of your employees who brought some great young people down to fade these when you got sick a couple years ago in the cup of Super Bowl, I of Super Bowl, I see young people coming to work there. What time of day is it closed? Give me just get I don’t understand the whole I didn’t have that in my community. You know, we had summer programs and things like that. But the community center concept, I talked so much about it. And I drive by and I see people at places in hubs, and I’ve done a whole lot on food insecurity, which is just something if you’ve never gone to bed hungry, and my dad did in his youth. I’ve never gone to bed hungry unless I chose to, you know, I mean literally. I don’t know what that is like. I cannot imagine a life of that. And this is something you see every day

Torbin Green  09:42

with dignity. Right now, we’re doing our, um, we call it The Giving Tree, and we all 60, well, 64 of our families are sponsored by other families. So they’re all getting their wish list of gifts, gifts, you know, donated to them. So right now. We have our donors dropping off the gifts at St Francis, and then the families come and pick them up. And it’s really cool to see, you know, the look on their faces when they see all these gifts that they wouldn’t normally get, that’s what’s going on right now. But as far as, like, the youth use of the center, you know, we have our after school program from two to six on Monday through Thursday. On the weekends. We have another youth program that is hosted by coach Rodell. We have love and lunches on Sunday, who comes in, and another smaller nonprofit that comes in and they make their sandwiches and meals for the next week. And our kitchen, how big your kitchen? It’s not quite commercial, okay? Because, you know, you didn’t want, you don’t want to have to have get that grease extractor. It cost way too much money, but it’s a teaching kitchen. You know, our kids are going there and learn how to cook, and we’ll bring in a guest teachers to do that. It’s but it’s nice. And then we have a cafe tied to it, which is also art studio, so you get a little bit of both. We had the value engineer and just combine those rooms, but

Nestor Aparicio  11:01

there’s the arts. It was different for me, like with arts, with painting and different things like that. But like, arts is now like music and computer music, right? I’m glad you said. I’m just thinking, like, there’s got to be, well, Thomas Dolby is a good buddy of mine, right? He was involved with the Under Armor center over at what used to be the Carmelo Anthony center, and like all of that, and I spent time there. And anytime I’ve been on tours with the Baltimore homecoming people, I’ve been to some community centers as well. For there, there’s, there’s a whole area where kids get to make music and like that, you’re smiling,

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Torbin Green  11:38

smiling because, because we have Frenchy Davis is our music teacher at St Francis center. Like, wow. Okay. And then you talked about, you know, computer sciences. We have that coming up in the second half of our after school program. So in late January, we’re going to start something really cool with that. And then we have another person who came in, who’s doing slam poetry with our kids, and they’re learning to do that. And do that, and they’re going to

Nestor Aparicio  12:03

perform it. So when you say after school, and like, I had a drop in center, and I’ll talk to John Allen about next week, because it’s where I met him, at Eastwood, 1978 79 and but Friday night, we would have drop in center, and that was our thing where, like, there’d be a record player, there’d be some Elton John playing. There be dodgeball. There might be a checkers or chess game, or connect four, or hop Scott, you know, just games kids play, or whatever at a drop in. I think the things you do, in a more modern sense, are much more educational base, right? Yours, all my things, we didn’t do that. You kids go out and run around and sweat, you know, run around like my cat. Just get some energy out of you. I think there’s a whole different level of what we’re trying to do these days after school, to engage minds outside of this crazy device

Torbin Green  12:56

called after school. For a reason, it’s after school. You don’t want to go back into school. So the way we approach this is we’re an educational facility, but you’re going there to have fun and learn. So we have the system called the Lou system, where it’s interactive projection system. It knows what you’re doing. So you could play, you talked about dodge ball. You can have a ball, and you can learn multiple multiplication and division by throwing and hitting the answer on the wall. And it knows. It’s really, really cool.

Nestor Aparicio  13:21

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We didn’t have this much fun when I was a kid. Neither did I learning was not I flash cards, bro, I had my turned out all right, my flash

Torbin Green  13:29

cards after school was the library. After school, it was just the library because my mom was a librarian, and I would go there and just read.

Nestor Aparicio  13:37

I was a microfiche guy, you know? I was it. I was a newspaper nerd, so I liked looking up facts and looking up old stuff, and then I became a newspaper writer. So imagine that kid looking up microfiche when I was 10 years old on the projector because I liked looking at 1963 newspapers. You know, that was sort of my jam, but, but more so than probably books at that time. But I think the ubiquitous part of digital and the web. And I not just in the city when it comes to economics or opportunity, but when I get outside the city, when I did this Maryland crab cake tour and eating all over the state, how many places where the Wi Fi doesn’t even work, right? And I’m thinking like, that’s probably not an issue in your in your facility, right? We have a bet public Wi Fi, that when the libraries became the only place you could get online in certain places, for me, it’s just the phone on route 50 going Ocean City or the hills out on the western part of the state. It feels to me like if you’re not online, you’re not like, you’re not participating, right? I mean, and not that I’m addicted to it, but give me a low down on younger people who don’t have the economic availability to even have their face stuck in a phone. Not we all think about everybody’s got a phone, everybody’s in your phone, having a phone and having your face in your phone. And tells me about your economic availability. It tells me you have a little bit more money than some people. You know, you have a little you have more opportunity. What is it like in that environment, in a hard scrabble part of the city, for people attaching to digital not becoming addicted to it, but having access to it to for it to be educational, I guess, for lack of better,

Torbin Green  15:26

in the end, it’s having a phone is you have the world on your hand. I mean, the phone that you have now could have done the first space mission. You know, it had even more power than that. So that having that for them, you know, I can’t speak for them, but I would say, but

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Nestor Aparicio  15:42

a lot of your power don’t have phones, right? Like, don’t that they don’t have access, their access to the world in that way would be coming to your center right, to some degree, right? Like the library,

Torbin Green  15:53

I would say the majority of at a certain age will have phones. I can’t fasten that from the way I grew up, because I didn’t get a phone till

Nestor Aparicio  16:04

as an example, I’m just throwing this is like mayor Scott. Let’s use him as an example. He did the show with me the first time I met him. He was city council president. Very new to it. Jack was running the city, because that shield that happened, yeah, that happened. Kathy was doing her healthy Holly time. And when Brandon came over, we started talking, and he talked about taking three busses to school every day, and every day of his life he was in the middle of Lexington market as a boy, transferring busses, yeah, to get to school, to get to school, to get to mervo, and I’m thinking to myself, the difference between that 13 year old boy who was Brandon Scott, who became our mayor, and is our mayor, and not having a phone or a device or anything like that, that now, if that young boy were running through anywhere and mom and dad were home, It would just be a tethering device. You know, my sister in law has a device on her 19 year old male son now that locates everywhere he is. So when he’s with his girlfriend, she says to me, Hey, he’s with so like, it’s a tracking device, essentially. But the notion that that’s how much the world has changed for a young African American, maybe not wealthy, or not at all wealthy, but maybe on the edge of, can I afford a phone or not? From a parent’s perspective, I can’t afford you to not know where you are, to not have Google

Torbin Green  17:35

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Map definition, not be able to latch key kid. It’s a new definition of LA. Explain that to me, because I don’t know much about that thing about growing up, you know, my age, you get home from school and you didn’t have adults at home. So essentially, that’s what a last key kid is. You You’re going home with no make yourself a peanut butter and jelly, and you have to take care of yourself and your siblings. Until, you know, we were a

Nestor Aparicio  17:58

bit of the first generation. I didn’t grow up that way, but your gender, you’re a little younger than me, that was a real thing in the 80s and nine latch key kids, right? Is it good kids going home alone? Is it good for them? Is it bad for them? And then I think about like when I talked to brandy, took three busses through the city to go to school every day end of the street and got on a school bus, and it went, you know what I mean, like, I I had a different experience in Baltimore County than anyone my age would have had in the city, let alone all of the other socio economic challenges that go along with that. But I just think of the phone as being this ubiquitous thing that we’ve all you, and I’ve been talking about AI off the air while we’re having crab cakes here, but just the availability of knowledge and information, and then that’s opportunity that becomes opportunity for people, right?

Torbin Green  18:43

Absolutely, it’s resources at your fingertip too. So it’s

Nestor Aparicio  18:47

kids are smarter these days, huh? On the edges,

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Torbin Green  18:50

they’re smarter in different ways than we were. Okay, we were definitely more street

Nestor Aparicio  18:54

smart. What do you see from young people,

Torbin Green  18:57

from to not sound too dismissive, I see some of, like, the common knowledge, things not seeping in, like, like parking, like they didn’t have to go through what we had to go through with parallel parking, you know. So you see that, and you’re like, why are you doing a six point turn when it should be a three point turn? Little things like that.

Nestor Aparicio  19:21

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They drive these schools what they need experiential. And then you

Torbin Green  19:24

have the whole, you know, covid, you know, oh, yeah, the way they’ve learned, you know, over, you know, virtually. They learn virtually.

Nestor Aparicio  19:34

I had a young lady who is it a 4.0 she’s brilliant. Her name is praise Ali oday. I know pronounce it wrong. She’s over at Coppin State, and she’s a quantum physics major. She and I got into it about AI last week as part of my Coppin State thing. And I’m talking to this young lady who’s just brilliant, you know, I mean, she’s all of 21 or 2021 22 and I’m thinking to myself, Oh, my God, five years ago, you were like a sophomore in high school and, like, had a mask on and. Like, that’s just a whole different experience for anyone that’s that age that I don’t want to be blind to. That’s something that’s very real to everybody who’s that age, under the age of, let’s say, 25 Yeah, that there’s been an experiential hiccup in their life that probably was like a war or the stock market crash for my father back in the 20s and 30s and 40s, right? It was there, like, I don’t know, 911 felt a little bit that way to you and me, or people like us that have been around, that didn’t live through Vietnam or World War Two or Kennedy’s assassination or any of that. But the Kobe thing has changed a whole sector of our young people, and we all knew was happening at the time. I don’t know how it’s changed them, but I think the so the society and the socialization of getting together and dating and mating and being in places. I was a hugger before, right? And I don’t hug anybody anymore. I’m a fist bumper.

Torbin Green  20:57

Change the perspective of reality for us through covid, because things you would do before, then you’re definitely not doing. Now, the way you approach people are differently, and the way you communicate with people are, quite frankly, is different. Now it’s not really personable when you’re talking to someone. It’s usually almost transactional moving forward. It’s, it’s, I say it that way, because it’s like you used to be able to just have, like, long conversations and not worry about your phone and all this. And now you’re you’re conversating with someone virtually, or you’re texting, and it’s not the same. You don’t get the same tone or anything from it. And so when you’re community communicating with people, it’s just kind of odd. It’s kind of weird when you’re talking with people.

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Nestor Aparicio  21:41

I had a moment by the way, Torben greens here from St Francis center where, faintly, it’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I have Raven scratch offs to give away here. I’ll be doing that our friends at GBMC as well. Putting this on the road. Got a bunch of crab cake tour stops. Tell me where they can learn more about St Francis,

Torbin Green  21:54

because I want to do that. Www.st, Francis. So that’s S, T, F, R, a, a, n, C, i, s, dot, O, R, G, spelling it right? I’ve messed it up, I’m pretty sure. But if St Francis center.org, go on there, you’ll be amazed of what you see on our social media at St Francis B Moore, there’s a lot to learn and see from what we do in the community that we serve.

Nestor Aparicio  22:20

Any events coming up, anything big happen in the pub? Happening that people could be a part of? I know you do once a year, you

Torbin Green  22:25

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do a big thing, right? Yeah, we have our we’ll call it a spring celebration, coming up in April. We’re working out the details for that, but that will be at St Francis. We’ll host it at our at our own facility, and it’s usually a lot of fun.

Nestor Aparicio  22:37

You’ve invited me to that it’s a weekend night usually, right? This year

Torbin Green  22:41

we’re looking at a Thursday night. Okay, we’re trying to mix it up and not make it as big, but just very impactful. And where are you located? Tell everybody where you where you are. We are in the corner of Linden and white lock and reservoir Hill.

Nestor Aparicio  22:53

Reservoir Hill. Get right off the exit. I got the little, that little tower there, called the Leaning Tower pizza right there by getting off by the zoo. Yeah. Exit seven a There you go. All right, torber Green is here. We’re failing. These rabbits are fun. So the AI thing, you know, I’ve gotten into this journey the last couple of weeks and stuff from your facility and your eyes and your ears and stuff. What do you people look at me like? I got three heads with the AI thing, but I, I love talking about it here lately. And you even said, like it’s helping you. When I think of, I don’t know if you know this talk, but I’m underfunded. Like you, I’m underfunded. We have something in common. If I had unlimited funding and unlimited resources, I would have unlimited personnel. You know, I’ve been working all these years to, like, try to bring my business back to the point where maybe I would have an assistant again, maybe I would have a sale, because I’ve had, at various points, 14 different employees, right? I had a 14 employee $1.4 million payroll 1516, years ago. So I thought I was on that growth thing. And then since I’ve downsized after my wife’s illness, I’ve taken on, as my AI would say, too much onto myself, and I think about little engines, underfunded community organizations, that AI, to me, is going to be a game changer in that space, if it’s allowed to be. Will it cost jobs? Yes. Is it going to cost you your job? No, you’re going to lose your job. Probably somebody that knows AI better than you. Yep, they’re learning AI. That’s what’s going to happen. So that’s why I’m in on this. But more than that, I think of myself as smaller and way more equipped at this point to move faster because of AI. And I think of small organizations like yours that are going to be able to be more powerful, because it is going to be a tool that makes smaller, be bigger. Act bigger. Be bigger. Be able to deploy more things that used to take a whole lot more. I’m saying resources. I mean money. I just mean money, resources, money, people, humans, all of that. I’m excited by that part. That’s why I was excited to share that part of it with you.

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Torbin Green  25:02

Yeah, right now. It helps with writing grants. It helps with, like, strategizing, you know, strategic planning. It does so much for the community itself. I just wish more people would utilize it or not be so afraid of it, and just learn the basics of it. You learn the basis basics of it. You’re going to be hooked.

Nestor Aparicio  25:20

Well, the executive director, part of you is, yeah, there’s kids, and yeah, there’s families, and we’re doing a lot of great things, but some something’s got to pay for it. So you’ve mentioned grants a couple of times. Where does funding come from for Community Association like yours, community house, it’s a development project. It’s all of that. It’s community center. Where does it come from? You say, writing grants explain that to me,

Torbin Green  25:41

yeah, for a center like ours, we look at foundations. We look

Nestor Aparicio  25:45

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at including goldsecker, who was here a minute ago, including goldstecker,

Torbin Green  25:49

yep, you know, so foundations are big. Individual giving is big. And then, of course, we have like grants like, you know, MSDE, they have like a CCLC that comes out this three year grant. We look for those that will pay for our programs, but the real grants you want to get are the ones that are like operational grants, sure that they’re not unrestricted grants that you can use the money for what you need to use it for, because sometimes it’s very restrictive, like the MSDE grants, they’re very restrictive. You can only use it for certain things, and it’s reimbursed. I gave

Nestor Aparicio  26:24

you a million dollars right now. What Would it improve? What? What things would you Are you in need of right now the next million dollars you get, let’s

Torbin Green  26:33

say it would be to support our intern and I would say workforce development programs, because I feel like if we can get those to where they need to be, will be even more impactful for the community and the surrounding work, right? Exactly. It’s all about being not only getting a job, but doing it well.

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Nestor Aparicio  26:54

Is it a wide spectrum of people that you see in your place that I don’t say employable versus not employable, but ready to be employed, versus what you could help them in getting their first job, there’s another job, or if they’ve been troubled and they’re coming back from, let’s say, incarceration, whatever it would be to help those people. And I do, you work with the city, you work with the state in that way.

Torbin Green  27:17

We try, and that’s sort of one of the things, where you can go get grants through the city for doing those specific things, because you

Nestor Aparicio  27:23

are helping the city or the city, yeah, so, but our city needs you to be successful.

Torbin Green  27:29

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I disagree with that. Yeah, our intern program, you know, it first of all, gives them something put on the resume. But it’s not just something on the resume. They’re working and they actually get paid. We have a paid internship for our high school teens. So they’ll come in and learn how a nonprofit works. They’ll come and learn how to do inventory finances, you know? So I think I feel like that’s not only putting something on the resume, but it’s also substantial for them to go to another job and learn

Nestor Aparicio  27:56

the employer scholarship says, and you got, you got a reference, right? Like it’s a reference, right off the bat.

Torbin Green  28:01

Well, I wish I had that when I when I had my first job and have anything on there, you know, you could not putting down McDonald’s or anything like that, but you could find a different job when you have the right references and the right information on your

Nestor Aparicio  28:15

first job was at sound waves at East Point mall, right there, you know, sound wave, and they hired me because I was willing to stand and ask people if I could help them. And I knew a little bit about music, guys, yeah, I put a country music thing up today. You see that on Facebook? I was with Mark Messina, that was on the show this week, and he didn’t like good music. And I tell him that all the time about rock and roll. And he said, some of me about country music, and I’m like, I don’t like I don’t like country music. And then this morning, I caught myself jamming to a country song at like five in the morning, and I thought, all right, I’m gonna make a list during the holidays, and my favorite country song be really short list, but maybe AI will help me. Torment green is here. He runs the St Francis center. They are located right by the zoo. Is that fair enough to say that it’s it’s on the way to the reservoir Hill,

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Torbin Green  29:02

right? Reservoir

Nestor Aparicio  29:03

Hill? All right. It’s by the zoo. It’s fair, right? South of the zoo, yeah, all right, south of the zoo. I’ve Googled. I know where it is. St Francis Center has been on our show many times. They have an event coming up in April, and all the information we had online. And I’m just, I’m just thrilled you’re here, because I’ve been trying to get you out for years, and finally, I had a cancelation hit you last minute. So it’s, I feel bad about it in your last minute, but I feel great that you came down. Delicious, faintly, crab cake. Tell everybody how they can help you out and how they can get involved in St Francis center so you can get back up there. Help kids get out of school here soon. They all got, they all got Santa fever now, right? Oh, yeah, nothing happens week two, week before Christmas, right?

Torbin Green  29:44

They got Santa fever. But, you know, like I said, we’re educational facilities, so they’re not just coming.

Nestor Aparicio  29:49

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I’m holding up my end by learning AI right now. So I’m learning through the holidays, at least. I’m trying to drinking a lot of eggnog, though, to tell me what’s going on at your place through the holidays.

Torbin Green  29:57

So through the holidays, obviously, when school. Closes. Our after school program closes. So you know, we’ll have two three weeks of where we won’t have the kids. So we have literally one more week with the kids until the winter break, but when they come back. So you are quiet during Christmas and New Year’s Day, I give my staff two weeks off, paid. All right, they need it. They need a break as well.

Nestor Aparicio  30:17

All right, and it’s cold out like all that. So the folks that use your center, is there, like a backup plan for folks like that, or,

Torbin Green  30:24

oh yeah, we still, the center itself will still be open for events and stuff like that. We ran out, run out the place. Oh, wow. Okay. And other, like I said, we have other programs that are there so,

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Nestor Aparicio  30:35

well, you’ve been, if it’s not your first rodeo, you’ve been, you’ve been doing this a number of years, right? Oh yeah, oh yeah. That’s like I said, then tell your staff, great job. The last 50 weeks. And when did, when do we cut? Cut out Christmas Eve?

Torbin Green  30:48

When do we cut two weeks, right? Two weeks they have the last two weeks of December.

Nestor Aparicio  30:52

All right? So that’s next week. Next week. Oh, yeah, everybody got senioritis, then I like that. You know, we’ll be back after first of the year. Well, while you’re down sizing, playing things through the holidays, I’m ramping up. I got five more Maryland crab cake tours to get out. I’m here at Fay Lee’s with torba Green from St Francis. I had Matt Gallagher stop by. Damien’s gonna be coming by because they’re shipping crab cakes here. I saw Lou. Lou runs the shipping here at fayettely’s, and he came by, gave me a fist pump. I said, Now look at that. We’re taping this December 10. I’m like, Ooh, man, next 1012 because you can’t order fadeleys On Christmas Eve. I just like, click, and they’re just gonna appear. If you want these crab cakes on Christmas Eve, Christmas day, day after Christmas, you go to faintly, seafood, you click, you can go to Baltimore positive. You can order online, and Damien’s gonna come in here, and I’m gonna ask her about the Feast of the Seven Fishes and, like all of that seafood stuff. So we’re gonna get some catfish. She won a big war with this catfish sandwich. She does. It’s a, you know, the catfish are eating the crabs in the bay. You know, that’s right. So they’re invasive. They’re big job of the hut catfish. So we’re trying to get the catfish out of the bay and on the tables. So next time you’re in, take a flyer on that catfish slider. They serve it with a hot honey. It’s like a hot honey stuff, and it’s kind of like a hot honey chicken thing, but it’s, it’s fish, right? And then they put the coleslaw in there. Okay, see a little coleslaw, little fish, little hot honey. It is delicious on a slider. Come on down to families to try their signature sandwich. Now, a catfish slider here that it won the governor’s Ward West loved it when they did the big Maryland, because everything was sourced in Maryland. That’s part of even the hot honey is Maryland source. So Hey, Jo spices, keeping it local is what we’re doing.

Torbin Green  32:39

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Speaking of honey. I have an apiary at St Francis. I got 160 pounds of honey this year.

Nestor Aparicio  32:44

That’s local. Now that’s,

Torbin Green  32:46

can’t get any more local than that. Can I buy it? You sell it. I do sell it. I’m gonna buy it because I was thinking of bringing you a bottle, and I forgot to bring it. All right?

Nestor Aparicio  32:56

Well, I’m gonna come and I’m gonna bring you something. I’ll bring you something nice for the center, and I want to take some money on because it’s helped me a lot. Living out in the in the far left down the city, I didn’t have any sneezing. And when I would drive to the radio station, which is up in the sticks, I would sneeze like a like crazy all day long because of the hay fever. But honey, since I’ve moved out to the county, I’ll have like a teaspoon of honey once a week or twice a week. There’s something about it that has allowed my system to not sneeze or have allergies. I believe that scientifically, that is scientifically proven, and they say the closer you get the bees to your house, the better would be it’s the same pollen, yes, yes. Is that Falls Road piling.

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Torbin Green  33:46

This is a North Ave, and this is true Hill

Nestor Aparicio  33:51

pub, yes, enough to home. That’s, that’s zoo close to

Torbin Green  33:54

home, and right next to a farm we got white, like community farm next to us. So these bees are loving, loving it.

Nestor Aparicio  34:00

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My wife loves all of God’s creatures, and so whether it’s deer, fox, rabbits, squirrels, whatever, but the bees and her dad loves bees, and they understand the importance of bees to the whole ecosystem. And no bees, no food. Let’s like simple, right? That’s it. There’s your meme. No bees, no food, so she went out and bought she was seeing bees. She’ll go and save them. She puts them on her hand, and she gets them out of the water. She’s had water bowls out for the squirrels, and the bees are drowning in the water bowls. She bought this flat thing that has little beads on it, so they have a place, so they stand and this dumb so be still fall in the water, and she has to go out there and rescue them. So my wife loves bees, so there you go. Yeah, I’m

Torbin Green  34:47

teaching the kids. They have their own little beehive bee suits, and they’re literally servicing the bees with me.

Nestor Aparicio  34:55

So I’m gonna come by their honey sport your center, okay? St Francis Center. Is in not downtown, but in the middle of town. I mean, it’s close to Center West ball. You can see downtown from there, absolutely Torben green is our guest. I’ve been trying to have them all for three years, four years, ever since he came up to me in a bar and said, Hey, do you know who I am? I’m like, Yeah, I know everybody. You’re Torben green, that’s who you are. My love to Christy, too. Thanks for coming out and supporting you and your young people that have come in your absence. And I’m glad that I could make a day here, especially when you’re like, coming close to powering down here for a couple of weeks with your employees. Thanks for coming out. It’s always pleasure. Thank you. And I love your beard. I wish I could grow one like that. I’m just working on a soul patch here right now. I know I felt good. I was in Ocean City. Some young kid can’t be at one o’clock in the morning over summer, I was down there. He got one look at me. He’s like, man, that soul patch is fire, bro, it’s fire. So when he said that to me, I’m like, I’m gonna keep my soul patch. Young people like it. I am Nestor. We’re here at families. We’re on behalf of our friends at the Maryland lottery, GBMC. We’re giving away Raven scratch offs. I’m gonna have the candy cane peppermint scented and then in January, I have been promised a special Harlem Globetrotters, scratch offs. Well, I had curly Neil in my studio one time. John Martin didn’t believe it, but I got a picture of it and all that. And I can even if I, if I wet my whistle, I can even do the little sweet George Brown. It makes me want to dribble a red, white and blue basketball. I’m here at Faith these I’m not going to dribble. I’m going to eat another crab cake and take some take some home for the holidays, because it’s fade these and why wouldn’t you? It’s Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.