Health & Economic Social Justice Programs Launch

Health & Economic Social Justice Programs to Launch
With 360 Views of Hollywood & Los Angeles

Sunset & Vine event launches Southern California LGBT Cancer Programs

Inspiring a new vision for health & finances with breathtaking views of Hollywood and Los Angeles, on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, dynamic new health and economic social justice programs will be launched from the new balconies and penthouse levels of Hollywood's premiere Sunset Vine Tower, as the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Community Charities introduces new programs to financially assist people living with critical health conditions and empower both individuals and local communities with new economic options and opportunities.

The new getavision programs of Metropolitan Community Charities include funding solutions including an innovative getavisionFUND microfunding program which redirects a percentage of merchant business credit card processing transaction fees directly to people facing serious health and financial conditions.

Working together with RBS WorldPay and Retail Data Systems, this first-of-a-kind program brings together the credit card processing companies with businesses to funnel money into the getavisionFUND program, with funds dispersed to those in need through debit cards issued by Visa and MasterCard.

Partnering with the New York City-based National LGBT Cancer Network, Metropolitan Community Charities is spearheading the Southern California-wide expansion of programs to bring getavisionFUND financial assistance to cancer patients, along with the development of awareness and prevention programs spanning from Los Angeles and Palm Springs to Long Beach, Orange County and San Diego.

Other getavision programs include the LaughMD getavisionFUND for patients and families at Hollywood's Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center and the LymeAID getavisionFUND to provide financial assistance and advocacy for victims of Lyme disease, a growing epidemic threatening individuals in the local Hollywood Hills, throughout California and around the USA.

"It's a monumental win-win for everyone. Nobody loses. This is like uncovering unlimited ongoing revenue that just has no threshold," stated Atlanta-based financial services industry consultant Richard Roscher, who has developed the getavisionFUND microfunding program. "This new funding source has the potential to touch literally millions of lives as we expand the reach and depth of the program and get the getavisionFUND debit cards into the hands of those who are in their most desperate struggles."

The two new visionTRADE programs include the locally-focused visionTRADE TimeBank and a global visionTRADE Barter Exchange Trading Marketplace, connecting individuals, organizations and businesses with new opportunities to generate income and exchange goods and services both locally and around the world through the TimeBank and Virtual Barter global trading exchange network systems. Encompassing individuals, organizations and businesses through the global Virtual Barter system, participants generate and trade in a currency of Trade Dollars, with revenue generated through the exchange going to support the getavisionFUND programs.

Partnering with the Washington, DC-based TimeBanks USA, the visionTRADE TimeBank community will join a global social change movement in 22 countries and six continents, which is revolutionizing neighborhoods and whole communities. At its most basic level, the the TimeBank system is about people spending an hour doing something for somebody else in the local community, with that hour going into the visionTRADE TimeBank as a Time Dollar which the person can then spend on having someone else do something for them. It's a simple idea that has powerful ripple effects in building community connections, creating a system that connects unmet needs with untapped resources.

The launching of the getavisionFUND and visionTRADE programs are part of the Metropolitan Community Charities "love revolution" in charity and social justice. "We're calling for a revolution of love and redistribution of wealth that directly reaches the health challenged and those who are the most vulnerable and helpless, no matter what sexual orientation, race, age or economic class.  If they're not you and me, they are our friends, loved ones or family members," said John Boswell, director of the getavision programs, who has been fighting his own financial and physical battle against an advanced stage of cancer and HIV.