One Home for Everyone
At Damien Center, our mission is to be One Home for anyone seeking a welcoming, affirming, place for care. As Indiana's oldest and largest AIDS Service Organization, it is our responsibility to support, address and be examples of equitable change within the community.
Over the past year, our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Steering Committee has developed a Strategic Plan to deepen our commitment to DEI both inside the organization and outside. This steering committee looked at the current state of DEI within Damien Center and developed a plan that fulfils our commitment to being One Home for Care.
Diversity
Diversity refers to the similarities and differences, both visible and invisible, that exist among people. Diversity includes values, beliefs, lifestyles, abilities, ethnicities, ages, genders, experiences, thinking styles, backgrounds, orientations, behaviors, cultures, socioeconomic status, and the innumerable other aspects that shape an individual’s personality and unique identity.
Equity
Equity is the quality of being fair and impartial or equal treatment; Recognition that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge – and eliminate – imbalances wherever they persist.
Inclusion
Inclusion is inviting and embracing the full breadth of perspectives, fully engaging those perspectives, and leveraging them to achieve our individual and collective potential, this requires action. Inclusion is more than accommodating or allowing diversity. It is about building strength through the inherent value of diversity and seeing it as a fundamental part of all we do. It requires a focus on how each of us makes decisions and a willingness to recognize and eliminate barriers to inclusion.
DEI Strategic Plan
Our DEI Steering Committee embarked on an effort to build a strategy that identified tangible actions the organization could undertake to strengthen DEI at Damien Center.
The process included interviewing the staff, receiving input from board members, and providing space for clients to offer input. This allowed the committee to have a holistic view of the current state of DEI within Damien Center and where they could develop strategies to improve upon our current efforts.
All of his led the Steering Committee to proposing six goals to further DEI at Damien Center.
Strategy 1A: Develop, implement and track DEI required training and professional development for all staff.
Strategy 1B: Create a written tool to standardize ongoing DEI discussions at Department levels.
Strategy 1C: Revise employee annual review process to include quantified DEI performance competencies.
Strategy 2A: Develop and implement vetting process to ensure intentionality when determining Damien's community involvement.
Strategy 2B: Conduct a DEI disparity analysis of policies and procedures.
Strategy 2C: Develop DEI policies and procedures identified through the disparity analysis.
Strategy 2D: Educate all staff, volunteers, and board members on DEI policies and procedures.
Strategy 3A: Complete a compensation analysis for all positions.
Strategy 3B: Conduct a pay equity and diversity analysis in conjunction with the compensation analysis and correct any inequities that are discovered.
Strategy 4A: Benchmark client demographics with staff, volunteer, and board demographics
Strategy 4B: Develop targeted outreach plans to reach target populations within our community.
Strategy 4C: Develop standardized interview process and implement trainings for hiring managers on equitable interviewing practice's.
Strategy 5A: Establish a consistent process for implementing and reporting results for our annual Culture Survey.
Strategy 5B: Create and implement Employee Resource Groups.
Strategy 5C: Create sustainability efforts for ERGS, internal committees, and other DEI efforts.
Strategy 5D: Assess and develop a plan to implement a training program for current and future leaders.
Strategy 6A: Conduct an audit of all current vendors to identify which are women, minority, LGBTQ+, and Indiana owned
Strategy 6B: Develop standardized guidelines/auditing check list to follow when selecting and contracting with any outside vendor
Working to Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Everyday
Our team is working hard to accomplish the goals set out by the DEI Steering Committee to make Damien Center an prime example of how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion can benefit overall culture and reputation within our community.
Here are a few things that have been accomplished:
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
We have launched a number of employee led resource groups which will help to amplify every voice in the organization. These groups have undertaken some fun and educational tasks internally including:
- Black History Month social media campaign which included a celebration of black culture at the end of the month
- Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) alter and celebration - food, music, and honoring our ancestors!
- Juneteenth Celebration - trivia and amazing food from a local black chef
- Trans Education Lunch & Learn - education for any team members interested on the issues impacting trans individuals
Vendor Diversity Assessment
We have started the process of assessing the diversity of our vendors. This has included conducting an audit of all current vendors to identify which are woman, minority, LGBTQ+ and Indiana owned. We will be implementing standardized guidelines for our staff to follow when selecting outside vendors. This will provide diverse businesses greater access to opportunities with Damien Center. We have also encouraged team members to think about diversity when selecting vendors for new initiatives.
Pay Equity Study
In 2022, we benchmarked every job's pay with the market to ensure we were paying everyone equitably. After this survey was completed, we adjusted pay rates for any position that came back under the market value. We are also working to include pay range or pay rate in all future job postings to offer pay transparency in the hiring process.
