93. Orvie B. Baker, Jr.: Producing a Documentary on a Monument Most Know Nothing About!

Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS

I sometimes surf social media in search of someone I think might be an excellent guest for this show. When I found retired US Army soldier Orvie B. Baker, Jr. I knew I had found true excellence! See, Orvie is a former SARC, Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, for the Army SAPRO (Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office). He has tons of experience as a sexual assault victim advocate and supervised and trained other Army SA victim advocates. Something even more extraordinary about Orvie is that after he retired from the Army, he went back to school and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Digital Cinematography! And now he’s using that new-found love of movie making to produce a full-length documentary about the nation’s first Memorial for Survivors of Sexual Violence, located at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That was the post I found that made me want to reach out to Orvie…and I’m so glad I did!

The fact that there is a Survivors Memorial blew me away! What a phenomenal idea!...but then to have someone with as much passion and zeal for victims and survivors as Orvie to come up with the idea to produce a documentary about the Memorial…boom!...mind blown! I just had to reach out to Orvie to see if he would be a guest on SASS, and fortunately for all of us, he agreed.

Orvie goes into detail about how he found out about the Memorial, and what he did to start production of his documentary. This is a fascinating story, so don’t miss this episode!!

Accompanying Orvie’s idea to produce his documentary, he also has a push going to get others interested in this project so that other memorials dedicated to survivors of sexual violence could be built in each state. Think that’s a great idea?—me too! Which is why I want to encourage you to donate to Orvie so that he can get this documentary marketed to help get the word out. Orvie has a GoFundMe campaign that you can go to and donate! The link is here, and listed below in case this link doesn’t work on some podcast platforms. Let’s do this: let’s honor Orvie’s service to this country and to his work as a SARC, and to his amazing idea to produce the documentary, by financially supporting Orvie! He also has a Patreon donation campaign that you can donate to here or at the address listed below.

On top of all that Orvie has done and is doing, he also wrote a children’s book about staying safe from sexual predators called, “Don’t Touch Me! Say No to Sexual Harassment,” that can be found on Amazon. I’ve read it…I highly recommend it!

Orvie provided me with his bio...here it is:

MR. ORVIE B. BAKER, JR. Orvie B. Baker, Jr. is a Chicago Native who moved to Louisiana at an early age and has been traveling ever since. Mr. Baker joined the Army immediately after High School,attending Basic Training in South Carolina; Army Individual Training and Airborne Training in Georgia; then serving at his first duty station at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Mr. Baker’s enlistment offered multiple overseas experiences, including: Germany, Spain, England, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Iraq. In 2003, he attended the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) and became an Army Equal Opportunity Advisor (EOA). In 2005, Mr. Baker deployed to Iraq as an EOA and, upon his return, transitioned to an Instructor at DEOMI. After twenty years in uniform, Mr. Baker was back in front of troops, in a civilian- capacity, as a Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention (SHARP) Instructor working to certify Victim Advocates and Sexual Assault Response Coordinators for the Army. Mr. Baker served as an Educator and Presenter for Catharsis Productions where he co-presented “Got Your Back”, a 90-minute interactive SHARP presentation. From 2014 to 2016 he conducted training the world over from the United States to Japan and areas in between . In his most recent position, Mr. Baker served as the 127th Wing Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program Manager at Selfridge from 2017 to 2019 and represented the organization both on and off Base. He was instrumental with standing up the 127th Wing Airmen Wellness Center; always the consummate motivator he earned the nickname, "DJ SAPR". Mr. Baker is the President of The Einmalig Group, LLC Consulting where he specializes as a guest speaker, educator and in climate assessments of workplace areas. He also wrote a book titled,"Don't Touch Me!" "Say No to Sexual Harassment".

Thank you for listening to Sexual Assault Survivor Stories! Please become a subscriber…it helps the show grow! And, please tell everyone you know about the podcast…that also helps the show grow. Finally, please do your part to help bring justice to victims and survivors of rape and sexual assault; the best way to do this without having to sign up for anything or pay anything is to Start By Believing when it comes to listening to or supporting victims and survivors. Because, we all know someone whose life has been impacted by rape or sexual assault.

Here are some important links for you. Please check these out!:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-orvies-1st-son-productions-journey?attribution_id=sl:046b0abb-2496-4bef-9ecb-f8c7b67f471b&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

https://patreon.com/Einmalig

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Touch-Say-Sexual-Harassment/dp/0985703733

https://markel-consulting.com

https://startbybelieving.org

https://safeinharmsway.org

https://evawintl.org/

https://thejanbrobergfoundation.org

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