With “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl” back at Faidley’s Seafood at the beautiful new Lexington Market, it was a great time to bring Officer Kevin Moody back with Tori Kerr to tell more tales of Preparing Youth For Tomorrow and ways the local organization is inspiring young people to volunteer and be involved in “Handshakes Over Handcuffs” mentoring on the streets of Baltimore.
Nestor Aparicio hosts Officer Kevin Moody and Tori Kerr at Faidley’s in Lexington Market to discuss their organization, Preparing Youth for Tomorrow. Officer Moody, a 10-year veteran, emphasizes the importance of mentorship and educational programs for youth. Tory, an 18-year-old intern, shares her experience with the organization, which includes volunteering and internship opportunities. They highlight recent activities like a toy drive at a school and the “Handshakes Over Handcuffs” mentorship program. The goal is to foster positive interactions between youth and law enforcement, promoting community service and personal development.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Preparing Youth, mentorship, educational programs, community service, internships, Baltimore, police officer, youth empowerment, collaboration, volunteering, public safety, school outreach, STEM programs, crime prevention, community engagement.
SPEAKERS
Tori Kerr, Kevin Moody, Nestor Aparicio, Speaker 1
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore positive. We are wrapping things up, but I’ve saved the best for last. We’re here, fates and Lexington market, fatally seafood, all of it brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I have the magic eight scratch offs. You scratch that. You feel lucky. I feel lucky because I’m down here having crab cakes, french fries and cucumber salad. I’m gonna have some delicious shrimp salad, which I learned as the merry murders shrimp salad here at fade Lee’s. I’m gonna throw myself just on the mercy of OFFICER MOODY here. Kevin moody is the executive director and founder of something called Preparing youth. Excuse me, empowering youth, preparing youth for tomorrow, but empowering the young youth through comprehensive mentorship and educational programs. So two things with you. I’m trying to get things right. It’s the third time I’ve screwed things up with you. Last year they came and I did live radio mistake, coming from a guy who’s done 24 years of live radio. I wanted to go live that week, and I knew something was going to get screwed up that week, and something was you, because when you came I had a patch cord went out, I had live radio went out. I had a button on a new board that made us sound muted. We did the segment live. I was kind of happy with how it turned out on tape, but I was so disheveled that I was barely paying attention to my guests the right way, because I was focused on everything but you. So I felt awful. I went home that night and I’m like, I’m doing this thing next year, if only to invite you guys, because I felt terrible two officers here with kids on the street and I had tech problems, so I apologize to you. Then I’m someone can bring you back. So I said next year we’ll do fadelies again. You set it up. Your partner, Derek, was gonna come down, and then I locked all this equipment in the trunk of the car. That’s why. So you had to upgrade here. You got your other office around the street. You brought me Tory. Tory curry is here. She’s here to help us talk about internships and mentoring with young people. I just want to do this the right way, so I’m gonna apologize you. We’re gonna start from the beginning like, I don’t know you, like I haven’t seen that jacket, like I haven’t heard your story. Last year, for everybody that hasn’t heard your story, because I want to give you the I want to hear the whole story. Nothing’s gonna get screwed up here. How are you, officer? And I’m great. I’m great. It’s good to see you again. Man, thanks for coming back and dealing with me again. Man,
Kevin Moody 02:25
oh, thanks for having us. And I mean, I guess with being a police officer, you know, we got to deal with change on the fly all the time. It didn’t bother me. I appreciate how many
Nestor Aparicio 02:33
years you’ve been officer, 10 years now, 10 years. What made you want to be a police officer, your city officer, right? Yeah, well, state, but work in the city. Okay, all right, your state trooper, then Maryland trains, them. MTA. MTA, okay, I didn’t know what you’re I don’t think we talked about that. Yep. MTA,
Kevin Moody 02:48
so we got the busses, the trains, light rail. What does that mean?
Nestor Aparicio 02:51
Like, I’ve been told when I have my computer, which I have here, not the greatest thing to have on me on the light rail. I live uptown, coming downtown. Just sort of safety things, precautions to take when you’re traveling on public transportation. And I took busses everywhere in my life. As a kid, my parents never drove. I took the 23 and a 10 out of Dundalk. I knew all the bus routes my dad took the bus to the point we were our carless families. So when I hear transportation issues in the city, I’m from that family, we relied on busses all my life, you know,
Kevin Moody 03:20
yeah. So, I mean, yeah, you say we recording and all of that. So I tell you, I mean, a lot of stuff right now with the MCA, you got crimes opportunity, so, yeah, you say you sitting on the on the bus or the train. You have your phone out, you have your laptop on different things like that. People gonna walk by, so you not paying attention, and it like this phone right here, like that phone sitting right there, or these two I got sitting right here, all right, walk right by, snatch it and run, you know, I mean, we get a lot of, you know, crimes of opportunity. And, you know, it’s just, you know, keep your head on a swivel. Make sure, if you’re not using that stuff, if it’s not in your hand, make sure you got to put
Nestor Aparicio 03:52
up. Does he teach you this stuff? Touring? Yeah, up and up here, preparing you for tomorrow. You’re an officer, it’s not enough that you, like you’re working, put your life on the line. You got your little badge over here. You probably holding something to keep me safe, you know. But like, that’s a lot for anyone. And you sign up for that, and you’re in the city every day, and then you and your spare time finding other young people here, and I just have great admiration for it, so I want to hear the whole story, man, thank you. I mean, we got bad stuff happening in this city. You see it every day, but you’re part of the good stuff happening. So that’s what
Kevin Moody 04:26
I want to promote here. Well, I’m glad you kind of started off, you know, asking about the crimes and stuff that happens on the system, because, like we said, with them, crimes of opportunity, that’s kind of how I get involved with the you I
Nestor Aparicio 04:40
started. Why are you doing this? Man? Is that what it is? Yeah, I’m doing.
Kevin Moody 04:43
I started off coaching football, then I started working for the school system. I worked at baby bookings for a couple years, and now I’m a police I’ve always worked with kids who are deemed troubled
Nestor Aparicio 04:52
youth. Did you didn’t want to be a cop? Then that wasn’t like your pathway? No, I
Kevin Moody 04:55
never you. You will not see a picture of me as a kid holding a badge and wanting to be. A police officer was just, it just happened. Where’d you go up my purpose,
Nestor Aparicio 05:04
West Baltimore, all right, so what you set your purpose? Go ahead. Let’s go on that. It’s
Kevin Moody 05:09
my purpose, man, like I said, coaching football, just always working with kids. Where’d you play ball? Coaching. I coached that. Play. I played. I went to woodlaw High School. Okay? You’re one long guy, okay? Warrior. I played. Yeah, play football.
Nestor Aparicio 05:21
Sometimes I beat on dogs. Sometimes
Kevin Moody 05:23
we never lost tour. I played semi pro a bit, you know. So always got a chance to deal with kids at Arbutus. So those kids kind of followed us up and just was with us a lot.
Nestor Aparicio 05:34
So Tori’s here and you were gonna have your partner, yes, and he’s out on the beat right now, you guys are street officers every day. I mean organizing this with you. I felt awful just asking you to come back after I had to cancel last month, because I feel like you’re out here doing this work every day, but then you’re recruiting other people, and you have this organization, and you brought Tory along here. What’s going on with young people? Because this is preparing youth for tomorrow. Young I don’t know how young you are. Yeah, I call you youthful
Speaker 1 06:01
for me. Yes, very How old are you? I’m 1818. All right,
Nestor Aparicio 06:05
so what? What is your connection to this? And where did you hear about preparing youth for tomorrow? Um,
Tori Kerr 06:11
so basically, when I was first introduced to preparing youth for tomorrow, it was at a volunteering event around Christmas time. They did like a toy and shoe drive, and I was really interested in continuing volunteering with them, and so I talked to Kevin, asking if they had any type of internship programs for students like me, because I am a first year student. Where’d you go? North Carolina, A and T, A N
Nestor Aparicio 06:31
T. All right. All right. There you go. Make sure. Not with Bill Belichick, Dan at the other North Carolina, yeah, or the North Carolina State. That’s your freshman.
Tori Kerr 06:38
Yes, freshmen. Where’d you go to? High School, Towson. High School, all right, you Towson,
Nestor Aparicio 06:41
so we’re all county kids here hanging out in the city trying to make the city better. Right? City better. City gets such a bad reputation and a bad rap, and every day, they’re great things. I mean, I sit here talk about them all the time. I think crime rate going down, mayors on all of that. But just in a general sense, being young and of color in this city, and being here, this is a time, I think, when we’re going to start to take folks like you and make this city better. It’s going to be up to young people. I’m old fart Tory. I’m 56 we
Tori Kerr 07:12
want to try to create opportunities for these students to get out in this community and serve so that way they can better improve the community that we’re in. When you
Nestor Aparicio 07:20
say, serve, what does that what would that mean? What would serving mean to someone 16, 1718, years of age here so volunteering,
Tori Kerr 07:26
that’s basically what our whole internship program consists of, just getting out in the streets, helping wherever we’re necessary, whether that be drives or actual hard work. I know you said some connections with like farming and things like that. There’s so many different opportunities in the Baltimore area, specifically in the city where we should have younger students like me and our younger generation helping so that way there, instead of being out and having opportunities of crime, they’re giving back to the community.
Nestor Aparicio 07:55
For you, start this thing you started as a police officer. When did preparing you for tomorrow really seed and begin? And I think you speak for your partner, you guys came up with this together, right? Yeah,
Kevin Moody 08:07
we started, yeah, just going out and just doing things in schools with kids. And I say, like the end of 2022, okay,
Nestor Aparicio 08:15
so you’re three years old now, going on three years what are the goals? How can people be helpful to you for preparing youth for tomorrow.
Kevin Moody 08:23
The goals are to continue to grow and just find more. Something that I love is, I say, collaboration over competition. So you know, other organizations that’s that may need youth to come out and and volunteer so that we can get these, these youth, into situations that they are interested in. It’s a lot of times, especially as a police officer, parents may call me and they’re asking me to send them through like a scared straight program. And I’m like, that’s not what works. What does your child like to do? Because I know people who have robotics teams, and if
Nestor Aparicio 08:55
I am seeing beer and bots on the 16th of April up at the fly thing up in Timonium. Oh,
Kevin Moody 09:01
yeah, yeah, it was this wonderful arena. That’s it. Yes, yeah, that’s beer
Nestor Aparicio 09:04
and bots. These are, and this, I had the mervo A teacher on about a month ago. I mean, they have an incredible STEM program over there, you know, and getting kids in the city to learn. I was not science tech. I’m talker, communicator. You know me either
Kevin Moody 09:20
and see that’s what I’m saying. So you have some kids who like that. So hey, let’s put them there. It’s not we’re not scan them straight. Let’s give them something that they like, incentivize them to do what’s good and do what they’re supposed to do, and expose them to these things. You said you are a you know, you like to communicate. So okay, so now let’s talk to some people who have podcasts and different things
Nestor Aparicio 09:40
like that. I did morning announcements in high school. I know you find out you liked it, right? Yeah, right. So
Kevin Moody 09:44
it’s like, Okay, if that’s what you like, let’s find what these kids like again, collaboration over competition. I love to be able to network and be like, Hey, let me make a call and get you put in a position where you’re gonna stay out of trouble. We got to give them something to do, and I think that’s something to do needs to be. Something that they like. I told you, I coach football. You have parents that make kids come out there and play and they don’t like to play. So why
Nestor Aparicio 10:06
are we here? Let’s find your big All right, right, yeah, right, yeah. So
Kevin Moody 10:10
I think that that’s the thing. Find something that they like. So I’m trying to get you know Tori came up with this internship idea, and it’s gonna be, well,
Nestor Aparicio 10:19
I can tell she’s the brains of the operation,
Kevin Moody 10:23
you know. And at work, I’m a sergeant. I love when somebody comes up to me and gives me, you know, a plan. Don’t just tell me what the problem is, because my next question give me the solution to do. Yeah. So he said that, Hey, can I intern? Okay, sure. What can you do? And we sat down, and she asked again, and I’m like, I don’t know, what can you do? And she had a whole amazing plan for this to
Nestor Aparicio 10:43
young people. Look at her, man. She’s connected. Yeah. So when you’re preparing you for tomorrow, give me an example of something where you’ve gathered some young people and done something good in the last week or two or month. What do you what? What are some I some, some examples of what you’re doing. Okay,
Kevin Moody 10:59
um, well, I would say most recently, well, that was two months ago, but hey, we went to a school every year. We’ll go to a school. We will get kids the entire school toys. We get donations of toys and so that they can enjoy the holiday spirit. You know what I mean? That we come in, we put on a show. We have other officers come in, they dress up as the Grinch. We have a DJ. They come out, they dance with the kids, and at the very end, second assembly, okay, sure, the toys are covered up. And then at the very end, I have them count down with me. And we, you know, unreal, unveil the toys. And, I mean, just, just they faces like, lighten up. And then when they then when they hear that we’re police. Like Tori, this has been telling the story, look like a cop. I’ll say, you know, but that’s the point, right? So when we’re doing this, we don’t look like cops, then we say that we’re police. You know, the looks on their faces. Some very few was like, excited. It’s more that’s like, you know, they don’t really know how they feel, because some people are taught to dislike. Yeah. How
Nestor Aparicio 12:01
does that work for you on the streets? To try to unwire that a little bit,
Kevin Moody 12:05
just just being real and being me, letting them know that this is just a uniform. Like I said, 10 years is how long I’ve been doing this. When I first came here, we was just coming off that Freddie gray stuff. So literally, like this area I patrol, so you’re one of the guys when they
Nestor Aparicio 12:19
were trying to get cops that people didn’t want to be a cop, right? That’s what I’m feeling. That’s what people never I mean, it’s always hard to get cops, but you know, and Don Moeller, my my mentor, and doing Baltimore posit, he would always say to a young guy like you, especially you, when you were 10, you still look young to me. She looked really young. But 1010, years ago, you were 810, years ago, you were starting this. But he would say, as the county executive, you say, if you’re into being a cop for the adventure part of it, it’s not, not the job for you. It’s a service job, right? It’s not a pleasure job, service today, right? You can be pleasurable to do it, but service is the job. Yes, this isn’t about playing cops and robbers. People get caught up in the adventure part. And I need to tell you about everything that’s going on with the city. And I don’t need to tell anybody of color here that that was part of the problem with trust with police officers, right? You’re working backwards from that every day, right?
Kevin Moody 13:09
In the city and around the country, definitely working backwards. I mean, when the George Floyd stuff happened in Minnesota, you know, we out here and they, you know, telling us about us killing people. I’m like, I never even been to Minnesota, right? You know? But, I mean, we are going, this
Nestor Aparicio 13:21
kid’s 12 years old with a mask on five years ago, like, like, the different world you’ve had than what I’ve had, and we’re inheriting it together. And I think it’s important that, you know, everybody’s sticking together and making things happen, because I please get a bad rap, but for those of you out there, every single day as citizens, we need to make it. We need good people being cops, not the bad people being cops. And that’s really better people being politicians, but that’ll be next segment for the young people. Yeah, that’s you. Young people need to get active. Stop this. This ain’t normal. I’m just gonna say that that’s
Tori Kerr 13:52
what we’re doing. Yeah, our generation’s working hard. I know that I like this, yeah, yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 13:57
All right, that’s awesome. Where can people get involved with you? Tory, if we have young people, or people with young people out there, donations, whatnot, but preparing youth for tomorrow, my guest is Kevin moody, Derek Johnson, couldn’t be here. Tory is here. She’s the intern extraordinaire. So folks get in touch with you. What they leave a message. What do you do? You call them
Tori Kerr 14:15
yes, you could always leave me a message. But more information about the internship will be brought on the PYT website very soon, and there’ll be a whole application process so students, juniors and high school, juniors and seniors, sorry, in high school, can click the link and apply, and we’ll make sure that we get back to them as far as the application process goes. And yeah, and we’re excited to work with as many students as possible that are interested,
Nestor Aparicio 14:39
so you do more school assembly type stuff to try to recruit young people. So
Tori Kerr 14:45
that’s what we’ve been doing. Yeah, we’ve been in some schools. We just were at. Was at Towson High School, their Law and Public Policy Program, mighty generals. Yes, yes, go generals. But we just were there talking to them about the internship project. We’re going to be going to Western soon to. Talk to them. So we’re excited. We’re going to different
Nestor Aparicio 15:02
schools. There’s still the engineers
Kevin Moody 15:04
over there as poly engineers
Nestor Aparicio 15:06
Western. I covered high school sports here. Yeah, you
Kevin Moody 15:09
look. You didn’t. Did all the sports
Nestor Aparicio 15:10
1988, 89 and 90. I covered women’s basketball. I just saw at a at a funeral, dear friend of mine, Rosemary Kessler, one of the great high school players of all time. I covered and you, they’re mercy, mercy. And I saw my friend Michelle. She had a mercy thing on. I’m like, sharp shooter. She’s like, No, no, no. We’re the magic, Mercy magic. They couldn’t call them sharpshooters because, God, right, they had to change a name, like the Washington Bullets. For me, I’m done though. You’re Woodlawn warriors. Towson, I gotta change generals, generals, generals. I’m Dundalk, owls, mighty owls. And I spent all of my life till I moved out to Towson, thinking owls were like, oh, it’s an owl. They’re so cute. Owls are nasty. I didn’t had no idea. I was always a little like, like, wow, that’s tough. We’re smart. Owls are smart, right? But it is. Owls are nasty, yeah. So, like, I don’t feel so bad that I have a wimpy mascot, because als are not wimpy. You know, I thought for the first 50 years they were preparing you for tomorrow’s way to go. Kevin moody is here. He’s fantastic. Intern, Tori is here as well the website, p, y, t, Inc, preparing youth. It’s like pretty young thing that’s before your time. But
Tori Kerr 16:34
I know it. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 16:41
Jackson is always Michael Jackson’s cool to pretty 18 year old girls forever since 1972 How about that? If I could just moonwalk, man. Can you walk? That’s
Tori Kerr 16:52
not. All right.
Nestor Aparicio 16:54
What do you know about Michael Jim? What is an 18 year old girl in America? Know about Michael Jackson?
Tori Kerr 16:59
That’s the king, of pop. All right, I used to play the Michael Jackson experience on my we all the time growing up is
Nestor Aparicio 17:07
that, like the magic eight ball? Hey, you’re 18. I can give you. When did you turn 18? I may. I’ve never done one of these. She mature beyond her years. This one here. You got good, good interns, good stock. Give your partner my best tell me I know he’s out on the street. I feel like I’m gonna have you back every year, because once my wife would say this, once I do something wrong or I feel guilty, the rest of my life, I’ll feel guilty about that awful segment ledge, and you’re gonna be the beneficiary, because I’m gonna call you forever, because you’ll be one of favorite guests. I don’t want
Kevin Moody 17:39
you to feel guilty. I do. But if that means you’re gonna bring us on every year, man, I love the opportunity
Nestor Aparicio 17:44
every year. Yes, that’s the plan. I want to see her when she’s like, 20, yeah, when she’s, like, drinking age three years from now,
Kevin Moody 17:52
and this internship is just here,
Tori Kerr 17:54
that’s the plan. Does 18
Nestor Aparicio 17:56
feel old to you? Um, it
Tori Kerr 17:59
does. Being in college, it definitely feel makes me feel way. What’s your major criminal justice? All right,
Nestor Aparicio 18:09
we can have a crab cake. Great people in the city doing great stuff. Kevin moody is the executive director and founder of preparing youth for tomorrow. He p, y, t, building stronger community connections by fostering positive interactions between youth and law enforcement. There you go. Yeah, that’s pretty good. All right.
Kevin Moody 18:31
Have any any listeners who’s probably school teachers and different things like, Oh yeah, school teachers. So yeah. So you want to come
Nestor Aparicio 18:38
over to Dundalk high school and do this. Is that what you want to do? Or do I have to make a call? Yes, please, please.
Kevin Moody 18:44
Yeah, we had a mentorship. And then we also go into schools and we work with kids. We have, we have a 14 week course where we where we literally call it handshakes over handcuffs, and you got real police coming in, interacting with the youth, and just everything that that caused handshakes, handshakes over that you come up with that, or is that like, if that’s a thing, yeah, all right. Man, shakes over handcuffs. I’m gonna
Nestor Aparicio 19:06
have you back. I told you that last year I felt guilty. Now I feel a little bit I got the whole story out. I mean, you brought her. We gotta bring your bring Derek back home, yeah, we gotta bring everybody by, and we’re gonna make it all happen again. All right. Appreciate your time. All right, man, appreciate you preparing youth for tomorrow. She’s prepared. I can tell, if nothing else, you’re gonna be a hell of a speaker. You’re gonna be a communicator. She’s great. You remind me of the poet that welcome Joe Biden into the into office years ago. Remember the poet, African American, young America. African American puts her name. She’s don’t make me do hold on. I’m gonna look her up. I’m gonna look her up now, hold on. Let’s see young African American poet Biden Obama, and it’s gonna pop right up. Her picture is gonna pop up because she read the most beautiful thing. Amanda Gorman, there you go. There. You a man, you mind me of Amanda Gorman,
20:01
that’s a compliment. That’s a compliment.
Nestor Aparicio 20:06
Remember name? Inaugural Poet, there you go. So Amanda Gorman, maybe it’s the dress or something. I’m not sure. We’re down here fadelies. I’m giving away magic eight ball tickets like Oprah, just throwing them out, trying to get some winners out here. We’re gonna be at Charles village pub in Towson, Maryland, home of w, N, S, T, next Friday, hopefully welcoming the Towson tigers in the March Madness on the 21st we’re going to be in Essex. Hard for Dundalk guy to go to Essex, but they let me. They let me go in and out. I get my passport stamped right there, back River. We’ll be down at Pizza John’s on the 21st I kid will be eating delicious pizza and have a cheese steaks. In the meantime, Show is over for today. Fates, which means I get to eat some muscles, shrimp shrimp salad and the delicious fates, crab cake. Signing off of faith these at the beautiful Lexington market. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
