In 1986, a homeless man with HIV was denied entrance to a hospice facility in South Philadelphia.
Kevin Burns, serving as the man’s volunteer buddy, worked hard with Anna Forbes, one of the first employees of the organization then called ActionAIDS, and eventually located another place to offer care. The man died soon after.
“The first few clients, I don’t think I worked with any of them more than six months before they died,” said Burns, the man who this month will help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the organization now called Action Wellness. He became the executive director in 2005.
“It was such a different time,” he said. “We had problems finding doctors. For people who died, it was next to impossible to find a funeral home to bury them. It was a war.”
Burns said the organization initially did a lot of bereavement work and helped people die with dignity, adding, “Today, we get people into good care [and make sure] they have access to medical services and affordable housing.”
ActionAIDS changed its name to Action Wellness in June and expanded its mission to include services for people with chronic illnesses beyond HIV/AIDS.
Deputy executive director Beth Hagan said Action Wellness sees a lot of people who have psychosocial, housing or mental-health concerns.
Burns said the 30th-anniversary gala aims to celebrate the past, including the legacies of the early clients who signed up for clinical trials and helped the community make strides for better care in HIV/AIDS today. Several former staffers are expected to attend the gala.
It takes place 6 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building, 128 N. Broad St. Tickets run between $150-$250, depending on seating and VIP accommodations. They’re for sale at www.actionwellness.brownpapertickets.com.
Guests will sit down to dinner and three community members will receive awards: Matt Flynn, a local artist, who will produce a piece for the Action Wellness lobby; Randi Sirkin, of the Starr Restaurant Group, who has been a longtime supporter of Dining Out for Life, an AIDS fundraiser; and PulseCX, a medical marketing firm that helped Action Wellness with its rebranding.
Ann Hampton Callaway, a singer-songwriter and Broadway performer, will entertain the guests at 8 p.m. She’s best known for writing and performing the theme song to the television show “The Nanny.” Callaway also has written songs for Barbra Streisand.
“It is a full evening and it should be fun,” Burns said.
He added he looks back fondly on the organization with which he spent three decades. Burns said he didn’t intend for it to become his life’s work, but he’s proud of it, especially the volunteer buddy program, which is one of the few that has survived in the city. Burns said it remains part of the “heart and soul” of Action Wellness.
“We’re able to walk with people through their journey with wellness,” he said.
Hagan also feels proud to see the organization sustained for so long. She started at Action Wellness 26 years ago as a mental-health specialist. Later she became director of client services, before assuming her current role as deputy executive director in 2014.
She said the organization has changed in “size and scope” since her early days. Hagan remembered accompanying some of her early clients to doctors’ appointments. Later, the work turned to making sure they could lead long-term, productive lives.
Around 1996, Positive Action started at the organization. It was a program to help people with HIV return to their jobs and stay employed.
“Years ago, that was never on the radar that people would be well enough to be in the workforce,” Hagan said.
She added later, “In terms of how we’ve grown, it’s always about helping people get services they need and removing barriers to care … I think our strength and expertise has always been around the social-work piece. To expand that to other populations who are economically or socially disenfranchised, it just really speaks to how successful we have been and hope to continue to be.”