A look back at 2014 at The Damien Center

It's officially the last day of 2014, and we're officially running on adrenaline from all the exciting things that happened here over the past year! It was a busy one, and in the spirit of looking back in order to look forward, we put together this little Storify to help us out.

It's populated by photos from our Instagram, so if you like what you're seeing, hop on over and follow along for our 2015 adventures. Enjoy!

Are you a Damien Center client? Help us out!

Damien Center clients, we need your help. We're getting ready to overhaul our website and communications, and we want to get your feedback before we hit the ground running. What information do you look for on our website? Is it easy to navigate? What's missing?

Our survey is quick and painless, but it will help us build a website that provides what you're looking for in the easiest way possible.

Who qualifies as a Damien Center client? If you're accessing (or have accessed in the past) any of our services, that's you! We hope you'll take a few minutes to help us help you by giving your thoughts and feedback.

Take our client survey now!

Top Posts of 2013

We've had a fun year with you, blog-readers. We've chatted about what pizza has to do with our food pantry, the 44 amazing restaurants that gave back through Dining Out for Life, and our insanely awesome volunteers, who keep things chugging along. Plus, we got excited about chili and tried to convince you to volunteer once. Okay, maybe twice. We also touched on some really serious and important topics, like what one incredible young woman is doing to fight HIV stigma in our community, how we're working to support high-risk groups, and what our strategy is for successfully preventing the spread of HIV and empowering those affected by it.      

So, we thought it'd be fun to look back and see what your favorite posts were this year. Take a read through these top posts, and then tell us what you'd like to read about in 2014. Enjoy!

Top Posts of 2013 

5. Forty Five Degrees, Yogulatte owner long-time Damien supporter - April 23, 2013

4. Go see Naked Boys Singing and support The Damien Center! - February 8, 2013

3. Costume Ideas: The Disco Ball Edition - September 24, 2013

2. Why Santorini Greek Kitchen gives back - April 5, 2013

1. Do you need to get linked? - May 30, 2013

Welcome, Damien Center AmeriCorps Volunteers!

This week, The Damien Center family welcomed three new members to our team to help us in prevention and testing, volunteer management, housing, and in our food pantry. Erin, Catherine, and Nahom are joining The Damien Center via the AIDS United AmeriCorps Program, a national AmeriCorps program focusing specifically on HIV prevention and care.

The Damien Center is one of seven cities across the United States where AIDS United AmeriCorps Volunteers work to fight HIV/AIDS, save lives, deliver resources, and support a range of HIV/AIDS service organizations. The program focuses on supporting these organizations while training the next generation of AIDS leaders. The Damien Center is one of several sites across Indianapolis where AIDS United AmeriCorps Volunteers are placed.

Erin Orme, hailing from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and, more recently, Loyola University in Chicago, is joining The Damien Center's Development Department to manage the volunteers that keep the Center ticking. Catherine Malin is from Illinois and is a recent graduate of the College of William and Mary in beautiful Williamsburg, Virginia. She will be working in The Damien Center's Testing and Prevention Department. Nahom Tecle, an Ohio native and Indiana University graduate, will be working in our Housing Assistance Program as well as our Food Pantry. 

We are thrilled to have these three incredible volunteers on our team! We look forward to seeing them grow as leaders while helping Damien Center continue as a leader in HIV prevention and care. Welcome, Erin, Catherine, and Nahom!

Walk around the block with us

We know it's hard to imagine at the moment, when the air is heavy and the sun beats down relentlessly, but fall is on its way. And so many wonderful things come when fall comes. Curling up in a blanket around a blazing bonfire, dreaming up your best Halloween costume yet, indulging in a caramel apple or a mug of fresh apple cider—and our favorite, taking a walk around the block to fight AIDS in our community!

This year's Indiana AIDS Walk, A Walk Around the Block, is going to be the perfect gateway to fall for all you lovers of autumn colors and cool, crisp nights. A departure from its previous incarnation as an early-morning walk through Downtown Indianapolis, A Walk Around the Block features a leisurely stroll through the beautiful, historic Herron Morton Place Neighborhood on Saturday, September 28, from 4pm to 6pm. Last year, more than 1,000 people walked for the cause and raised $225,000 to fight HIV and AIDS right here in Indianapolis.

What else is there to do, you ask? We'll have entertainment, a wellness fair, a pet pit stop, awards and prizes, and of course, fun for the whole family. All proceeds benefit the Gregory R. Powers Direct Emergency Financial Assistance (DEFA) Fund. Grantees of the Indiana AIDS Fund, including us here at The Damien Center, use DEFA funds to provide emergency financial assistance and direct care for those throughout Indiana impacted by HIV/AIDS. Here at the Center, we use these dollars to provide bus passes, food for the pantry, medication assistance, client events, and mortgage/rent/utility/incidental assistance.

Want to take a walk around the block with us? It's easy peasy. You can join Team Damien, sign up as an individual, or make your own team by recruiting friends and family to walk with you. Can't be there on September 28? No problem. Make a donation to the event and know you're making an difference for the health of your city.


Check out all the event details here!

Celebrating Successes: Our 2012 Annual Report

When we sat down and started to brainstorm what our 2012 Annual Report would look like, we envisioned something different - something that would capture our innovative programming, showcase our commitment to fighting HIV, and help our donors and supporters better understand what really happens at The Damien Center on a daily basis.

Enter Jane and John. These two fictional clients take readers on a journey from getting tested for HIV to finding stable housing and getting connected with health care, and everything in the middle. As Jane and John access a range of Damien Center services, they are able to stay healthy even as they are infected or affected by HIV. Jane and John represent the thousands of individuals we reach every year through HIV testing, Care Coordination, counseling, housing, and many other programs.

Our 25th year of service - 2012 - was truly our best yet. As a leader in HIV prevention and care, The Damien Center sits at the forefront of a national movement toward Linkage to Care, which is just one key piece of the ever-growing puzzle to eradicate HIV. Each of our programs is carefully designed to tackle different aspects of this complex issue.

We hope you'll take a read through our 2012 Annual Report and explore what it's like to be a client at The Damien Center by following along with Jane and John. It's because of supporters like you that we can continue to offer our services completely free of charge to those in need in our community. Thank you, and enjoy!

And the Oscar goes to...

Sunday is the 85th Academy Awards, and for at least one of us here at The Damien Center, that means movie-watching season is in full swing. The quest to see all nine Best Picture nominees before the red carpet gets rolled out is an annual tradition I share with a few friends, but luckily, the task is made easier by AMC's Best Picture Showcase. All nine films, two Saturdays, and lots of well-timed bathroom breaks.

Last Saturday kicked off with Amour, Les Misérables, Argo, and Django Unchained—not the most upbeat of movie marathons. After a long and emotional journey through love and death in Amour, we then took on the fate of France's poorest in Les Mis, the intense evacuation of six Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis in Argo, and finally, Jamie Foxx's portrayal of a freed slave turned bounty hunter in the quintessentially Tarantino Django. The coming weekend will feature the remaining five Best Picture nominees: Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings Playbook, and Lincoln.

And on Sunday, celebrities will get big, fancy awards. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing—the list goes on and on. But two weeks ago, quietly, away from the clamor of the Best Picture nominees and the glitz of the red carpet, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented its annual Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards. These awards, folks, are the really incredible ones. The recipients are doing things that revolutionize the way movies are made, like making computer-generated creatures more realistic and improving workflow with software that can take on entirely new processes. You can read about the winners and be amazed here.

And what does this have to do with The Damien Center? We got to thinking—who's working behind the scenes here? Who are background technicians, the people who make things tick and innovate and move the field forward? Like the Scientific and Technical Achievement Award winners, they've got ideas and stories worth telling about, even if they don't get the Hollywood-ified treatment the stars do. So we're going to change that. We want you to know more about what's going on here at The Damien Center, so we're going to start featuring stories from our staff members. What do they do, why do they do it, who do they serve? What does a day in their shoes look like? Our care coordinators, HIV/STD testers, food pantry staff, housing managers, counselors, and many, many more are the real award winners around here. In the coming months, look for stories from these folks and others. You'll be amazed at the incredible things happening behind the scenes.

It's National Pizza Week!

Remember when Congress (almost) declared pizza a vegetable? Okay, okay, we know that's not really what happened, but in light of the controversy and the fact that it's National Pizza Week, we got to thinking about food, nutrition, and what all that has to do with The Damien Center.

Meeting basic nutritional needs is critical for our HIV+ clients, but with the high cost of medication, many people living with HIV can’t afford nutritious food. Having a balanced diet with essential macronutrients, calories, and micronutrients can greatly impact the body’s ability to fight disease—especially a relentless disease like HIV. Pile on top of that the difficulties of finding transportation, stable housing, a job, and so forth, and you can see why nutrition is an important piece of the puzzle for people managing HIV in their lives.

One part of the solution is our on-site food pantry, which is a licensed grocery. Coupled with nutritional support, our food pantry helps people living with HIV meet their unique needs. We strive to keep our selection diverse and nutritious, so in addition to non-perishables, we also supply fresh vegetables and meats to maximize our healthy eating options.

Hygiene is another piece of the puzzle. Good hygiene minimizes the risk and spread of disease and infection; because HIV compromizes the immune system, stopping secondary infections is an important part of what we do. To support good hygiene, our pantry also provides items like soap and laundry detergent that are not covered by food stamps.

So while we don't serve up pizza to food pantry patrons, we do try our best to support healthy eating and nutritious choices for our clients. Interested in supporting the food pantry? Check out some of our current needs and consider raiding your cabinets for a donation.

25 Stories: The Next 25

25 years. 25 stories. Throughout 2012, our 25th year of service to Central Indiana, we turned our blog into a virtual melting pot of stories about HIV. We told you about Rob, who worked tirelessly to help people with HIV get the medical care they needed, and Evelyn, who was there with Earl Conner when he decided to dive head first into the AIDS epidemic by opening The Damien Center. You read about Mark, one of The Damien Center's original buddies and a lifelong HIV advocate, and Dr. Woody Myers, who stood by Ryan White's side and fought the stigma associated with HIV in the mid-1980s right here in our community. We shared stories from Charles, Elizabeth, Robert, David, and a dozen more people who, in some way or another, have been affected by HIV.

Well friends, we've got a confession to make. We only shared 24 stories with you. No, we didn't get lazy or forget. We were saving it. For you. For all of us. Number 25 is something more - something collective and holistic. It's about what we're doing now that's moving us into the future, toward an AIDS-free generation and toward healthier, happier lives for those already living with HIV.

Our grande finale, story 25, is about linking people to the care they need, like mental health and substance abuse counseling, housing assistance, a food pantry, free HIV testing, and Care Coordination—services that actually help lower the HIV viral load of our clients, improve their health, and make them less likely to transmit HIV to others. We think that's a story worth telling.

It's 2013 now, and we don't know about you, but we're chomping at the bit to see what the next 25 years will hold. We're ready to dream big, work hard, and make more history. Our 25th story is only just getting started. Will you join us?

25 Stories: Jennifer

Here on our blog, we talk a lot about Care Coordination, housing, and other supportive services for those living with HIV. But what does that have to do with preventing the spread of HIV? All of those services help lower the viral load of our HIV+ clients, making them healthier and less likely to transmit HIV to others. We also reach out to populations most at-risk for transmitting or contracting HIV and give them the resources they need to keep themselves and other safe. Take Jennifer, for example. 

Jennifer first came to The Damien Center as a teen uncertain of how to protect herself from HIV and STDs. But by the time she left, she knew exactly how to keep herself healthy and safe. Jennifer's story is one of hundreds like it - our youth outreach program, Teen Damien, gives young people like Jennifer both the knowledge and bravery to care for their own sexual health.

Jennifer came to our Joseph F. Miller Testing Center for resources and support after participating in safe sex programming through her school. After being tested for the full range of STDs as well as pregnancy, Jennifer and her boyfriend worked with our prevention staff to learn the appropriate way to put on a condom and engage in other safe sex practices. Through Teen Damien, Jennifer is now educated and empowered to take control of her life and her sexual health. Jennifer and other teens like her represent the potential we have to create an AIDS-free generation through early prevention education.

Teen Damien is just one of our prevention and education programs. Project CORE helps recently incarcerated individuals stay HIV- and drug-free, our counseling services help people lower their risk of contracting HIV, and our HIV and STD testing services give anyone and everyone a place to get tested and stay safe and healthy. Your year-end contribution supports services like these that prevent the spread of HIV right here in Central Indiana. Make a gift today and help us work toward an AIDS-free generation.

25 Stories: Housing is healthcare

Robert, a 51-year-old HIV+ African American man, was living with an abusive roommate when he decided to seeking housing services from The Damien Center. Robert's roommate locked him out of his home, ate his food, took his belongings, and on the way to a doctor appointment, kicked him out of the car on the interstate and made him walk the rest of the way. Robert's physical and mental health began to deteriorate as a result of this highly stressful situation, and he needed housing assistance to escape this situation.

Robert, who had no income, no family in Indiana, and debilitating back issues that keep him from working, was referred to The Damien Center through the Department of Corrections. Robert had been released from prison in the past year and was already enrolled in vocational rehabilitation and classes for nursing licensure. He was doing everything he needed to in order to get back on his feet - he just needed out of that house.

Robert meets with his Care Coordinator at The Damien Center two to four times a month. Through these meetings, Robert was able to apply for and was granted HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS) assistance. He now has his own apartment and his mental and physical health have improved dramatically. Because he has no income, he also accesses The Damien Center food pantry and Ryan White nutrition assistance, as well as Ryan White transportation assistance so he can attend his many doctor appointments.

Robert's quality of life and sense of independence have dramatically improved. According to Robert's Care Coordinator, the support and resources he was connected to through The Damien Center have reignited Robert's spark for life. "The first time I met this client, he was crying out of desperation for his situation and out of exhaustion for the status of his life," she said. "Now when I see him, every fiber of his being is smiling. He is very grateful for our services and very excited about the path his life is now on."

Happy birthday to (all of) us!

Birthdays are good for celebrating, laughing, imbibing, indulging. You know the drill: cake, cocktails, loved ones, favorite places and spaces. But they're also good for looking back. Reflecting. Thinking about how far you've come and what you've been doing that matters to you and your values.

Today, I - Kimberly, your faithful Damien Center blogger and marketing coordinator - have been doing just that as I celebrate my 27th birthday. I've been asking myself, what have I been doing these last few weeks, months, and years that enriches my life and others', that makes my community a better place?

Here at The Damien Center, we've also been celebrating our birthday - all year long. It's our 25th year serving those affected by HIV in Central Indiana, and we're so proud of the legacy we have as Indiana's oldest and largest HIV/AIDS service organization. What we do and how we do it didn't start last year or last month. It started in 1987, when a caring, progressive group of people got together to support a community in crisis.

Birthday reflections, for us, have us looking at who we served, how we served them, and where our (your) funding dollars went. So, what have we been doing that matters to us, our values, and our community? In 2011, we:

• performed 2,315 free HIV tests
• reached 796 youth through prevention education
• served 1,126 clients through Care Coordination
• helped 96 families find housing
• fed 616 clients through our food pantry
• assisted 124 clients in receiving emergency financial assistance

And this is just the beginning. Birthdays are also for looking ahead to the coming year(s), planning for a strong future, setting goals, and living life. So as I and The Damien Center look ahead to our next 25 years, we hope you'll help us celebrate both where we came from and where we're going.

Looking for ways to honor our 25 year legacy? Make a donation, volunteer, walk with us in the 2012 Indiana AIDS Walk, or snag a ticket for swankiest gala in town, the 25th Annual Grande Masquerade.  

Sneak Peek at our 2010 Report!

We're still processing some data for our 2010 Annual Report, but here is a sneak peek some exciting statistics that will be included!

• 98% of our clients rate their overall satisfaction of our food pantry as either neutral, somewhat satisfied, or highly satisfied. 78% of our clients said they were highly satisfied.
• Of our clients who responded to our survey and visited other food pantries in the Indianapolis area, 82.5% believe that our food pantry is at least as good, if not better, than other food pantries.
• The food pantry was accessed 4,416 times in 2010 and distributed 154,560 pounds of food.
• In 2010, we administered over 1,500 free HIV tests. Compared to the 974 free HIV tests administered in 2009, this is an increase of over 54%!

Food Pantry Update - January

The food pantry's meat stores have been depleted because of the holiday season. Donations of canned meat, especially beef and chicken, are needed. Other sources of protein are also welcome.