Join us on April 17th at GBMC for “Walk A Mile In Their Shoes” event to support victims of sexual assault

It’s always the hardest topic to discuss in our community but we are always here to educate and help victims of sexual assault. Laura Clary from the GBMC S.A.F.E. (Sexual Assault Forensic Examination) team invites Nestor to “Walk A Mile In Their Shoes” on April 17th in Towson in the 11th annual event that is a fundraiser and an awareness campaign to help anyone in need after the worst trauma any human can imagine. Come walk with us!

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Meet GBMC facility dog Olivia and take a photo with her during the April 17 Walk a Mile in Their Shoes event at GBMC.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Publish registration and donation links for the GBMC Walk a Mile in Their Shoes event on the BaltimorePositive.com website before the April 17 event.

GBMC’s Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Upcoming Events

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland crab cake tour, sponsored by the Maryland lottery, with events at Costas Inn, Koco’s, and Pizza John’s.
• Nestor mentions GBMC’s support during a flood and promotes a colonoscopy event, emphasizing its importance for health.
• Nestor introduces Laura Clary from GBMC’s SAFE team to discuss the “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” event on April 17th.
• Nestor highlights the sensitivity of the event, which addresses sexual assault and other difficult topics, and praises GBMC’s efforts in community support.

Overview of the “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” Event

• Laura Clary explains that the event is in its 11th year and is a significant fundraiser for GBMC’s nonprofit services.
• The event aims to raise awareness about sexual assault and provide solidarity with victims, emphasizing that GBMC is always there to support.
• Nestor and Laura discuss the importance of the event in bringing the community together to support survivors and raise awareness.
• Laura highlights the event’s dual purpose: fundraising and raising awareness about sexual assault and its prevalence in the community.

Details of the SAFE Program and Community Outreach

• Nestor and Laura discuss the SAFE program, which provides confidential services to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child protection.
• Laura explains the importance of talking about these difficult topics and GBMC’s robust outreach program to educate the community.
• The program is designed to be inclusive, addressing victims of all ages and backgrounds, and emphasizing that these crimes can affect anyone.
• Laura emphasizes the importance of community awareness and support for victims, highlighting GBMC’s role in providing services and resources.

Event Logistics and Community Involvement

• Nestor and Laura discuss the logistics of the event, including the location at GBMC’s South Chapman building and the activities planned.
• Laura mentions the presence of GBMC’s facility dog, Olivia, who will be available to provide comfort to patients and attendees.
• The event will feature fun activities for children, including tents and booths, and will be a family-friendly event.
• Nestor encourages the community to participate, emphasizing the importance of supporting survivors and raising awareness.

Importance of Support and Awareness

• Nestor and Laura discuss the significance of the event in providing support and raising awareness about sexual assault and other difficult topics.
• Laura highlights the importance of community involvement and the positive impact of the event on survivors and the community.
• The event aims to create a sense of solidarity and support for victims, emphasizing that they are not alone.
• Nestor and Laura discuss the importance of continued awareness and support for victims, highlighting GBMC’s ongoing efforts in this area.

Resources and Support for Victims

• Laura explains the resources available to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child protection, including GBMC’s 24/7 services.
• The website provides extensive information and resources, including hotlines and emergency exit buttons for immediate assistance.
• Laura emphasizes the importance of knowing where to turn for help and the availability of resources to support victims.
• Nestor and Laura discuss the importance of educating the community about these resources and the role of GBMC in providing support.

Steps Taken from Intake to Care

• Laura describes the steps taken from intake to care for victims, emphasizing the importance of a trauma-informed approach.
• GBMC’s private space, referred to as a suite, provides a comfortable and secure environment for patients.
• The suite includes a cozy living room, nourishment station, and toys for children, aiming to create a home-like atmosphere.
• Laura highlights the importance of treating patients with care and respect, ensuring they feel comfortable and supported.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

• Nestor and Laura conclude the discussion by emphasizing the importance of the event and GBMC’s ongoing efforts in supporting victims.
• Nestor expresses his appreciation for GBMC’s work and the importance of raising awareness about sexual assault and other difficult topics.
• Laura reiterates the significance of the event and the community’s role in supporting survivors.
• Nestor encourages listeners to participate in the event and support GBMC’s efforts in providing care and resources for victims.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

GBMC SAFE, Walk a Mile, sexual assault, awareness, fundraiser, community support, trauma-informed care, facility dog, domestic violence, child protection, 24/7 services, nonprofit, Maryland crab cake tour, GBMC South Chapman, April 17th.

SPEAKERS

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Nestor Aparicio, Laura Clary

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore. Positively doing a lot of baseball around here. We’re about to do a lot of crab cakes. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery. I have these Harlem Globetrotters. I swear I’m going to have the Maryland treasures by Friday when I get to fadeleys. We’re going to be at Costas Inn in Timonium on the 16th now Koco’s on the 23rd and we just announced on Friday May 1, will be a pizza John’s in Essex, one of my favorite spots, where I snuck in for a cheese steak the other night. Our friends at GBMC also put us on the road for the Maryland crab cake tour. In conjunction with Farnan and Dermer. They are the comfort folks who kept me comfortable last week when I had that crazy flood going on around here. They are plumbers as well, and they’re really good at it, in addition to the HVAC and the AC as we get out and do this thing. But big event going on on Friday the 17th, if you’ve heard me speak of my colonoscopy last year that may have saved my life. So get in there, fellas, ladies as well. And of course, I have a checkup coming in a couple of weeks because I’m getting older, and they’re worried about me over GBMC, but they do an annual event, and we promoted this last year, and we these are very sensitive conversations when we have these conversations, because, you know, my mother was involved in sexual assault when I was a child. I grew up in Dundalk, seen all sorts of things in all sorts of ways, and we all talk about ways we could support folks and give back, and they just do something that’s phenomenal over GBMC, I want to welcome in Laura Clary, who has been in and around talking about these issues. I’ve had many members of the staff on over GBMC, and this is sort of the big event. It is walk a mile in their shoes, not just her shoes, but their shoes. It happens next Friday on the GBMC South Chapman, that is outdoor space, and it was construction over there for a long time at GBMC. I know Laura, but we’re going to make some space, and it’s going to be a sunny and 72 right? And I’m checking the forecast, right, yes. Hopefully. How many years has this been going on? And I know you talk about these really sensitive issues all day long. You see this. You bring it home from work. It follows you. For some folks that is listening on the radio, maybe they’re looking for an Oriole or the Ravens draft next week. And we get pretty serious about things going on in our community that we don’t talk about because they’re hard to talk about, and they’re heinous and they’re hideous, and it involves crime and children in some cases, in many cases, too many cases. And this is an event where we try to bring people together to celebrate survivors and strength and also shine awareness on some things that we don’t talk about, 365 around here, but are happening 365,

Laura Clary  02:42

that’s correct. So this is our actually 11th year, hosting this event. Last year was our big 10 year anniversary, so we’re really excited. We have a lot of energy moving into this 11th year. And I love that you said that this event is so much more also about awareness. So while this is one of our biggest fundraisers, because we are completely nonprofit, so none of our patients receive a bill for any of the services when they come through our program. So events like this are super helpful to make sure that we are always available. 24/7, but more important than that is just awareness, and it’s seeing hundreds of people come together in solidarity with victims of sexual assault, and just walk that mile so let people know in our communities that you are not alone and that your community is here and support you, and GBMC will always be there for you. Alright?

Nestor Aparicio  03:32

So safe is the acronym we use, and some folks don’t. And I’m reading right from the website your sexual assault forensic examination, safe ace, S, A, F, E, I’ve always seen that in upper case, and I hear it, but I didn’t associate it to that domestic violence child protection that c, p, p, if you ever see that, these are confidential services to victims of all ages at no cost to anyone this, let’s talk about The program, which I think is really the hardest part, because today, tomorrow, next week, last week, you’ve been doing this a long, long time, and you’re a local person. I’ve done the research on you. You’re real local that this, this happens here in our community, and it’s something that it doesn’t lead the news, and it’s in the news doesn’t want to touch it, and it’s hard for me to talk about it sometimes, and it’s once you get into it and you start meeting people and hearing stories, you deal with it every day. And it’s, it’s important, but it’s, it’s kind of whispered about, right?

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Laura Clary  04:32

It’s, it’s a tough topic to talk about. I mean, nobody really wants to talk about sexual assault or think about a child being hurt or domestic violence that might be happening in your neighbor’s home. It’s certainly difficult topics, but even more so why it’s so important that we talk about them. So this is why we developed a very robust outreach program, so that we can get into the schools, we can get into the colleges, we can get into, you know, community agencies and give presentations. Conversations about the prevalence of these crimes in our community and what services are available if you know somebody who might be a victim of one of these types of crimes. So we always say that these crimes don’t discriminate. They can affect anybody based on, you know, it’s not based on race, on gender, on socio economic status. It’s certainly not based on age. So our youngest patient was six months, and our oldest patient was 98 and we see everything in between. So just understand that that these crimes do happen, and no one is immune from them. So it’s really important that we talk about them and we make sure that people know that they’re not alone. And there are services out there,

Nestor Aparicio  05:39

and if you want to pitch in, this is the best chance to do that. Next Friday, we’re going to be over GBMC four o’clock in the afternoon. I have ordered sunshine. It has been said to me that it’s going to be perfect on that day. You can learn more about this up@gbmc.org just walk a mile in their shoes. It’s on the south. What’s the south Chapman? Can you? Because when I say that to folks that you’re smiling, but it’ll be well marked anywhere you are coming in off of Charles Street or in off of Towson town Boulevard.

Laura Clary  06:06

Right, absolutely, there will be signs that will direct you all the way. So South Chapman is a building that’s in kind of the back end of GBMC. It’s got a very, very big parking lot, which allows us to set up lots of fun tables, lots of fun activities for kids. It’s going to allow us to set up a tent for the facility. Dog Olivia, to be there.

Nestor Aparicio  06:24

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So Olivia, hold on. I’ve heard about Olivia. Hold on here. We’ve talked about Olivia, but I have not met Olivia yet. And as the keeper of my cat, while my wife is spending two weeks in Italy eating pasta and having a good time, I love animals. You have a very special animal that’s associated with the Safe Program,

Laura Clary  06:42

right, right? So it is our GBMC facility dog. She is a really cute yellow lab, and she walks around, you know, GBMC, and goes and visits kids up in pediatrics. If we have children who are maybe staying there for a longer period of time, she goes and sits with them and keeps them comfortable. And if we have a patient that maybe just needs a little bit extra support or just something to make them smile on that day, we can, we can arrange for Olivia to come down to the safe unit and visit that patient as well.

Nestor Aparicio  07:11

I have a comfort cat. I need a comfort dog, so I’ll get to meet. I’m getting a picture with Olivia on Friday the 17th, that’s correct, absolutely. All right. Well, I hope Olivia is in the mood to meet lots of lots of new people. This is just, just come and be supportive, correct? And and you can register, you can donate. There’s all sorts of ways. It is a fundraiser, but give everyone the lay of the land of what they’re expecting next week when they come out and seeing people in the community. I’ve done so many things recently with the why on Thanksgiving, it just the fellowship and the people that come together at these events for all the awful things going on in the world, and certainly the backdrop of safe and what you deal with every day. This is one of those days where, like, people come together, and they do bring their dogs, and they do put their walking shoes on. And it does span generations. People come out with her whole family, and I this is gonna be a nice little spring hoot. Nanny. Get me out, you know? I mean, I do hope we get perfect weather, but it is nice to gather as a community. And this is one of the things GBMC, this is really like a Super Bowl for the for the hospital, and I really for the area that you’ve been doing this for over a decade, right?

Laura Clary  08:19

It’s one of our biggest events. And what I think is, like, I said, what I think is amazing to see, for one the converse shoe is kind of our, like, our logo, and it’s amazing to see so many people come together wearing the converse shoe, and, yeah, the red shoe and and really walking again, just All walking together. And while it’s a really, you know, deep topic, everyone’s smiling and laughing and dancing and have pom poms, and it’s really incredible just to see this sea of people coming together in our community to support victims of these crimes. And I think that’s what is the most special thing about this event, is just seeing how, how many people out there truly care about, you know, survivors and in our community.

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Nestor Aparicio  09:07

Let’s talk about your work. And you mentioned that you’re you do seminars come out and educate folks. What should my audience know if you if we were doing a round table and just talking about this, even with pizza John’s, which I have in the past, and I’ve done long, lengthy segments. And the more I talk about it, the more I learn about it in different ways. And having been exposed to all sorts of stuff, I’m 57 I’m from here too, so the sensitivity of the subject matter is very, very difficult. And I think when you bring it to broad groups of different people, to just get their attention for 10 or 15 minutes and say, focus on this. So that if this is happening somewhere where your eyes can see it, if you see something, say something that people would know what to do and who to call. And I mean, I even asked, Do I call the cops? What do I do? You know, if. I were to see something like this happening somewhere in our community.

Laura Clary  10:04

So I think that’s that’s a tricky question, because, you know, especially with domestic violence, sometimes sometimes calling the cops immediately could put that person at a higher level of danger. And that’s why it’s important to know that GBMC safe is available 24/7 so people can call in, they can call into the emergency room. They can visit our website, which is a tremendous resource. So if you go to our website, it lists a whole bunch of services that are available, not just at GBMC, but with with some of our partners in the community, that if there is, you know, something that you think should be reported, there is numbers that you can call, there’s hotlines that you can call so that website is a incredible resource to get all of the information that you might need if you think you need to help somebody out of a situation. It’s not something you should wait till

Nestor Aparicio  10:50

tomorrow, if this is going on, right here, right now. That’s the tools that you know. I’m hoping to educate people with. Hey, when this happens, you do that, you already know what to do,

Laura Clary  11:02

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right, right? And you can, like I said, just, just advise and say, Hey, go to this website. It has so much information. It has so many resources right there that can help you and your friend. You know, you can advise that person that might be in that relationship that they can visit our website. It has a emergency exit button. So if they’re reading through and they need to get out very quickly, they can emergency exit. It takes them somewhere else. So, but it is. It has so much great information about next steps and about services and resources that are available.

Nestor Aparicio  11:35

So when a referral happens and a woman, a child, a man, it could be anyone comes to your doorstep or an email or some sort of 911, what are the steps that are taken from intake to, I don’t know how you make anyone comfortable in that position, you know? I mean, obviously the first thing are your people and the humans that will meet you at the door where they’ve done this before. You’re dealing with professionals and you’re dealing with obviously something that’s going to remain private and confidential.

Laura Clary  12:14

Absolutely so our entire staff, our Forensic Nurses, our advocates, our social workers that work with children, they are all trained in trauma informed care, so they all know how to interact with patients that come in after they’ve been through a traumatic incident, and our goal is to treat that patient in a quiet, comfortable environment. So we actually have a private space at GBMC. It is not labeled. It’s completely secured. A lot of people don’t even know where it is for good reason, but when we take them to that space, we call it our suite. It it really doesn’t even feel like you’re in a hospital anymore. It has a cozy living room. It has a nourishment station. It has toys for children. We really tried to think of everything that we could to make patients more comfortable than being up in the emergency department or somewhere else in the hospital that we could bring them somewhere quiet, private and comfortable to receive their care.

Nestor Aparicio  13:07

Alright? Well, this is a heavy topic. We talk about it a couple of times a year with our partnership with GBMC and all the things that they’re doing over there to keep people safe, keep them happy, healthy, alive. These are the things we don’t talk about, but the Safe Program is there sexual assault, forensic examination, domestic violence, child protection program, all available, 24/7, 365, you can learn more about this out of gbmc.org, and also, the big event is on the 17th. It is the 11th annual 11 years now into walk a mile in their shoes. It is Friday, April 17. It’s at four o’clock. Sun still going to be out shining over the west side of GBMC, toward Charles Street. You can register and and you can go to our website at Baltimore positive. We’ll have all the links up. My guest is Laura Clary, who is you’ve been doing this a long, long time, right? And speaking about this and to see this event grow talk about, you know, the last 789, years is this thing has really grown some momentum to be something. And I don’t know why you pick April or this weekend or the Friday, but it certainly feels like about a month before Preakness baseball’s getting going. It’s, you know, it’s a Friday night where you can get people before they go to the beach even, it feels like a perfect time to do an event like this outside

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Laura Clary  14:23

absolutely so this is actually my 16th year as a forensic nurse examiner. So I’ve been doing this a long time. Absolutely love the work. I really have a true passion for it. As far as this event, I participated in it every single year since its inception, and each year I just feel like it gets bigger and bigger and has so much energy, and people just want to be involved in it. And again, it’s all about, all about that awareness. And we used to actually have it on Saturday mornings, so pretty early in the mornings on Saturday and then last year, we changed it to be a Friday evening event, hoping to get a lot more engagement from actual people getting off work and saying, hey. I can go walk a mile. Can take an hour of my day to go walk a mile after work before, you know, going home for the weekend. And I think that the Friday evening approach was really successful. And I think because we had such a successful evening last year, that’s why we tried to replicate it again this year. And again, there’s going to be so many fun things to do. It’s a family event, so feel free to bring your kids. There’ll be different tents and booth setup that they have activities for children. So it really is. It’s a really special event.

Nestor Aparicio  15:31

And I get to meet Olivia, which is even better. So this is on the 17th, okay, so we’re taping this out a week and a half, but I do have the 10 day forecast, and I’m no norm Lewis or, you know, tassel, Myron, Itos guys, but supposed to be like in the low 80s, middle of the week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It’s saying 68 I can live with 68 at four in the afternoon. That’s a perfect time for me to watch. It’s almost what way keep my air conditioning here. So I think it’s gonna be perfect climate. I think it’s gonna be a perfect sunset. Come on out. I’m out. Bring the dogs, bring the kids, bring the family. Be it. Bring comfortable shoes. Very important. A one, one mile walk and hang out at GBMC. If you’re in the area, we’d love to see you. I will be there as well, and I’ll walk a mile and a couple extra steps like I did all over South America. Laura, thanks for coming on. I know it’s a tough topic and easier for you to discuss than me, but I didn’t get teary eyed or weird or wee beat out, which sometimes happens in these things, because it is does hit close to home for me and in my family. So I’m appreciative that times have changed and things get better, and there are places for folks to go and people like you to greet them at the door and make them more comfortable after they’ve already been traumatized. So keep up the great work out there. It’s safe to hard work you all do over there.

Laura Clary  16:45

Thank you so much. Thank you so much

Nestor Aparicio  16:47

for having me. You know, bring that dog to me next week, right? Yes, she’ll be there for sure. All right, now we all like labs, so that’s good. Olivia is gonna meet me next Friday. I hope that that you meet us on the 17th. I’m gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour the day before, I’m wearing my Costa singer. We’re going to be in Timonium on the 16th. We’re also going to be on the 23rd at Koco’s, back in Koco’s, the Laravel I’m looking forward to that, and my coconut shrimp that I love so much, and the cream of crab soup that’s so tasty, and the crackers too, the saltines. And then on the first of May, we’ll be back at Pizza John’s at Essex, having a cheese steak and proper french fries and gravy, which I’m need to add a little bit more of that to my diet here, if I’d be walking a mile next week with my friends at GBMC, I am Nestor. We are W NST AM, 1570 to Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. We’ll see on the 17th over GBMC. You.