50 Years, 50 Faces: Damian Callender:
My name is Damian Callender and I am the Renewal Programme’s Director of Support and Empowerment. I have lived in the area of South London for 45 years and I have over 24 years of experience within the social care, mental health, substance misuse and criminal justice sector, within which I have successfully remodelled, mobilised and implemented multiple services and internal projects. I see myself as a versatile professional, with the ability to be flexible in the face of changing priorities.
My interests are going to the gym and training others using various training methods.I enjoy meeting new people, reading and listening to a variety of literature, also travelling to new places and learning about different cultures.
I found out about the Renewal Programme in 2019 from a recruitment agency.
Due to the multiple services I oversee, which comes with service users who have multiple levels of need from complex needs, high needs, medium needs and low needs which require individual support responses, I feel that the values of the Renewal Programme ensures a base line level that will feed into all individual support needs and covers all levels above.
I feel most connected to several projects: Supported Housing, Carers Health Empowerment Project, Refugee and Migrant Project, Immigration Advice and Support and our Community Hub. This is because I have been apart of either the remodelling, mobilisation and/or implementation of all the above services I oversee. I have had the opportunity to see them grow and improve on service delivery over the last 2 years and 10 months. Due to the complex and individual needs which service users present, it allows me to support managers and project leads using all my skills, knowledge and experience in this sector. Having said this I feel all services delivered contribute value to the Renewal Programme as a whole and all compliment each other. It’s the multiple services delivered out of one named service and joint working between different services which make the Renewal Programme unique.
The person that stands out to me is the Chair of Trustees of the Renewal Programme, Arnold Ridout. He is able to communicate and interact at all levels of the charity.
The Renewal Programme reminds me that there are still people out there who truly want to help others in need.
