» 28
Community Care Tampa Bay organizations
offer their ongoing support
AIDS Healthcare Foundation 3404 26th Ave. S., St. Petersburg, Florida 33711 | 727318-6880 | HIVCare.org
The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Centers provides advanced medical care designed specifically for its more than 1 million HIV-positive clients across the globe. Its St. Petersburg healthcare center does so regardless of the ability to pay and is located in the organization’s Tampa Bay flagship facility in the Skyway Marina District, first opened in May 2017. It houses AHF’s pharmacy and their fundraising thrift store Out of the Closet, which utilizes 96 cents of every dollar collected to fund programming and services benefiting those living with HIV, AIDS and/or homelessness. The model has existed and flourished for more than
EPIC SUPPORT:
30 years.
PHOTO BY DYLAN TODD
Balance Tampa Bay
Empath Partners in Care in St. Petersburg.
1802 N. Howard Ave. #4529, Tampa, Florida 33677 | BalanceTampaBay.org Balance Tampa Bay (BTB) was founded to promote fellowship, fun and philanthropy for the LGBTQ community and Tampa Bay at large in 2011. To further its mission, volunteers have held public service activities and large-scale events ever since, including three signature gatherings: Kickball For Kids, Masquerade! and Party 4 Presents. Kickball for Kids is described
a
RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT
ctivist Barbara Gittings has been called the mother of the LGBTQ civil rights movement, celebrated for both her
visibility in its infancy and for her lifelong fight
as a “fun in the sun fundraiser” which supports a different children’s charity each year. BTB partners with another nonprofit – traditionally Empath Partners in Care, detailed below – for masquerade, described as “a fabulous night of music, dance, fun and fundraising,” and Party 4 Presents is a holiday gift drive benefiting Tampa Bay charities.
to secure the community’s future. Her work
Empath Partners in Care
began in 1958 when she founded the first East
3050 1st Ave. S., St. Petersburg, Florida 33712 | 727-328-
Coast chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, the
Empath Partners in Care (EPIC) is a member
nation’s first lesbian civil rights organization, and continued for decades in a number of other ways. That’s because “equality means more than passing laws,” she famously shared. “The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.” LGBTQ advocates and allies throughout Tampa Bay have long understood that, forming organizations dedicated to changing hearts and minds alike. Learn more about some of that important work here.
3260 | MyEPIC.org of Empath Health’s network of health care providers, which has supported patients challenged by chronic and advanced illnesses in Tampa Bay since 1977. It formed after the 2016 merger of the AIDS Service Association of Pinellas (ASAP) and the Tampa-based Francis House and currently offers a wide variety of services via its Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Tampa campuses. The organization has benefited from Dining Out for Life Tampa Bay for 16 years and holds a number of other fundraisers to raise awareness for its mission, which helped
