[1][2][3] The Damien Center was established in April 1987 by a team of community members including the Darrell Arthur of the Indy Bag Ladies, Monsignor Gettlefinger at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Cathedral representing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, and Earl Conner, an Episcopalian minister an AIDS activist representing the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.
[3] The center is named after Father Damien, a Roman Catholic priest who dedicated his life to caring for individuals with leprosy in Hawaii in the late 1800s.
The program offered several days of training which included mental support for grief, the physical symptoms of AIDS, and more.
[3][4] In partnership with the Marion County Public Health Department, the Damien Center operates a van that provides clean needles, naloxone, and care and other harm-reduction measures to drug users.
[6] With the push to end the HIV epidemic by the Department of Health and Human Services, the center has responded by expanding.