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!

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!

Damien Center Director of Prevention earns Stand & Deliver nom

Recently, Merz Aesthetics, distributor of Asclera^® (polidocanol) Injection, along with an advisory panel of women who were selected for their significant abilities to Stand & Deliver, searched the nation for inspirational women who are changing their communities one day at a time through support of a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Where did they find one of their finalists? Right here at The Damien Center!

Our own Director of Prevention Rhonda Bayless has been selected as a finalist for her outstanding work with the Center of Wellness for Urban Women. "We aim to provide women access to the tools and resources to help in their journey to living a healthy life," says Rhonda, who founded the CWUW in Indianapolis.

According to Akilah Webster, who nominated Rhonda, she is "a caring, giving, dedicated woman who works tirelessly and selflessly in the Indianapolis community. Not only does she work extremely hard at the Damien Center, a nonprofit org that provides services to HIV/AIDS affected individuals, she also founded the Center of Wellness for Urban Women, a nonprofit that empowers women and their families to become more proactive about their health." The Stand and Deliver grand prize includes $10,000 from Merz Aesthetics and Asclera^® to support the charity of Rhonda's choice as well as a professional makeover.

We are proud to have Rhonda on our team here at The Damien Center and encourage all our friends and supporters to cast your vote for her to win the Stand & Deliver award!

Voting is easy and you can vote for Rhonda once per day until April 19. Vote now!!

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.

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.  

Welcome our new staff!

In the past month, we have been fortunate to have new hires to help with our expanding programs. We'd like to welcome Ronny, and Jeremy to the Damien family! For more information about these individuals, please visit our staff page.

Ronny deLuna:

Ronny has a background in administration and patient relations. He is fluent in Spanish and often serves as a translator for the departments he works for. Having worked with the MCHD and Wishard hospital, Ronny is eager to offer his experience to The Damien Center and its clients as the Administrative Assistant.

Ronny enjoys spending his free time with his partner, family and friends.

Jeremy Turner:

Jeremy serves as the Client Services Enrichment Coordinator. In the new position, Jeremy will oversee operations in the Damien Center's Coby Palmer Food Pantry, plan and execute client-centered events, and work closely with the Client Service Committee to ensure the ongoing collaboration between the Damien Center and its client base.

Jeremy comes to the Damien Center from other AIDS service organizations in Southern Indiana (AIDS Resource Group) and Western Kentucky (Matthew 25 AIDS Services.) Jeremy is a former Prevention Program Coordinator, Red Cross HIV 101 Instructor, certified Indiana HIV Testing Counselor, “Street Smart” certified program facilitator, “Many Men, Many Voices” certified program facilitator and a recipient of community awards and accolades relating to his youth-based HIV and Substance Use prevention programs. In addition to prevention efforts, Jeremy has experience in grant writing, event/ fundraiser planning and agency food pantry operations.

Recently having relocated to Indianapolis from Evansville, Jeremy looks forward to using his background to help enhance Damien Center clients’ overall experience at the agency. In his free time Jeremy enjoys jogging, playing the piano and performing. Be sure to stop by his new office in the food pantry to say “hello!”

New Staff!

The Damien Center would like to congratulate Jamie Broderick for her promotion to Care Coordination Program Manager! Jamie will directly oversee the care coordination staff and leads our interdisciplinary team to develop, implement, and monitor client services. She will train and supervise new care coordinators in accordance with our agency's training curriculum, and she will participate in evaluative and quality assurance activities to ensure professional accountability to the agency, funders, and clients served.


Jamie originally joined the Damien Center staff in March 2010 as a Care Coordinator. Jamie started her career after college at Denver Health and Authority. She worked on a CDC funded HIV prevention counseling study called Project Respect 2. The study compared different forms of HIV testing and risk reduction counseling in clients at STD clinics throughout the United States. From Denver, Jamie moved to New Jersey and took a position as a Ryan White Title II case manager in Asbury Park, NJ. There she assisted clients with their day to day needs including housing, transportation, medical, etc. Building on her case management experience, she was fortunate enough to accept a position at the National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project as a treatment educator in all 5 boroughs of New York City. NATAP is a leader in up-to-the-minute HIV treatment information covering the latest in drug development and research. Before moving back home to Indiana, Jamie was promoted to Director of Programs at the New Jersey Women and AIDS Network in New Brunswick, NJ where she helped to implement the SISTA Project.

After arriving in Indiana, Jamie has been working in tobacco control for the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency. She was the Director of Programs for the Central West region and is also currently the coordinator for the Boone County Tobacco Free Coalition. Jamie started OUT Against Tobacco, a small group of tobacco control advocates that assist the LGBT community to fight back against the tobacco industry.

In her free time, Jamie likes to read, officiate women's basketball, and spend time with her partner and 3 kids.

New Staff at The Damien Center!

We would like to welcome four new staff members this month!

Samantha Akers is our new receptionist. An Indianapolis native, she has been involved with Spotlight, AIDS Walk, and the Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis. Samantha is currently studying American Sign Language.

Jamie Putman joins our prevention team as the Prevention Case Manager for Project CORE. She has experience with youth drug and alcohol prevention, LGBTQ issues, HIV/AIDS prevention, breast cancer awareness, and political campaigns. A creative thinker, Jamie loves to craft and bake.

Bashiri Asad is our newest HIV Tester. He is a former Americorps member who has worked with The Red Cross, FEMA, Denver Parks Department, and Habitat for Humanity. Outside of work, Bashiri is the leading vocalist for Xenobia Green.

Ricky Ward joins us as our HIV/AIDS Youth Peer Educator. He has experience working with youth at the Brookside Community Youth Program and Celebrity Cruises. He is currently a student at IUPUI pursuing his degree in social work.