The Albany Damien Center program areas include the Living Room (est. 1988), Smart Meals (2001), PAWS (2003), Housing (2012), MPower! (2014), and Employment Pathways (2018). In 2019, The Capital Region NAMES Project, established in 1991, became the newest program of the Damien Center. The Albany Damien Center serves the upstate New York region in communities located in Albany, Clinton, Columbia, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Green, Hamilton, Montgomery, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren, and Washington Counties. The Damien Center also has a full-service pharmacy on-site provided by Town Total Health, a division of Meijer, Inc. Town Total Health provides free medication delivery, assistance with refills, insurance & co-pay assistance, total pack medication packages, helpful pharmacists and personalized medication adherence support.
The Damien Center employs 40 staff members and utilizes over 45 volunteers each year to deliver services in a caring, trauma-informed, grassroots approach. Since 1999, Perry Junjulas, Executive Director and person living with AIDS, has led the organization and has encouraged active participation by people living with HIV/AIDS in all areas of program service delivery.
The Living Room Program provides drop-in programs including HIV+ peer-led access to care, supportive counseling, HIV prevention support groups, holistic therapies (massage, Reiki, spiritual care), HIV/AIDS information resources, computer access, consumer advocacy, and opportunities for social and recreational activities.
Smart Meals combines nutrition education with well-balanced nutritious hot meals prepared on site, grocery bags, and food vouchers to local supermarkets.
PAWS (Pets are Wonderful Support) provides task, financial, and informational assistance to pet owners living with HIV/AIDS to ensure that they are not separated from their animal companions when they need each other the most.
Our Housing Program, helps individuals living with HIV/AIDS gain employment, vocational training, and stable housing.
MPower!, provides health and human services and employment supports to our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual (LGB) and Transgender Non-Binary (TGNB) community. Employment Pathways provides assistance to persons with HIV and AIDS to return to work and school along with benefits advisement.
NY Capital Region NAMES Project Chapter provides HIV education and prevention through the NAMES Project Quilt displays in our upstate NY region.
The Albany Damien Center serves over 300 individuals living with HIV/AIDS and their affected members of their support system who are not accessing HIV medical treatment and supportive care services and have limited social supports. Our members typically are living in poverty, are unstably housed, have co-morbid health conditions (mental health, substance use disorder, diabetes, hepatitis C, cancer, cardiovascular disease, et.al), and inadequate or nonexistent psychosocial supports. For our members, we become family. The Damien Center is a unique resource in our Northeastern New York community for people living with and at risk for HIV/STI/hepatitis. We provide programs in a comfortable and supportive HIV+ peer-led environment using a health and wellness education model. Our trauma-informed, client-centered approach addresses the physical, psychological, and environmental impacts on an individual’s overall health. Staff understand the barriers and issues faced by people living with HIV/AIDS and deliver programs utilizing a culturally sensitive, client focused, harm reduction approach. We work to ensure each person has unfettered access to the life enriching treatment and support they deserve, ensuring HIV prevention in the process. Imagine a place where a hot meal is being prepared for you in the kitchen, a place where you feel a part of a family. Imagine a place where people greet you and warmly ask how you are doing. Imagine a place buzzing with the sounds of conversation and laughter, a place where you’re accepted for who you are. You meet people like yourself whom you can trust to help you learn how to take better care of yourself, because you’ve realized that it’s never too late to be what you might have been.
