LOS ANGELES (PRWEB)
September 30, 2020

myCovidMD™, the empathy-driven community and tech-based testing and telehealth platform launched by Shared Harvest in March 2020, has received a generous $240K donation from Ballmer Group. This donation comes ahead of Shared Harvest’s crowdfunding campaign to raise $250K to expand access to testing for 10,000 Angelinos, eliminate $2M in student loan debt for frontline health providers, and to renew trust in the health system by operating culturally affirming pop-up testing sites and a contact tethering program in marginalized communities across the country.

Ballmer Group’s sizable contribution allows Shared Harvest | myCovidMD™, the largest minority medical provider taskforce, founded by three African American women doctors, to expand their reach specifically in predominantly Black communities in South Los Angeles. Access to quality healthcare is limited in these communities, more so now than ever. The Ballmer Group’s donation will allow myCovidMD™ to further scale testing and connect healthcare volunteers and patients through their free online portal. Additionally, the funds granted by Ballmer Group will support the Student Loan Debt Relief Fund, which is an integral part of Shared Harvest’s volunteer reward program. Volunteer professionals make up the network of Community Health Partners (CHPs), virtual COVID Crisis Counselors, assist with home wellness visits, and are the people power running the pop-up drive-thru testing events. As a part of Shared Harvest, myCovidMD™ works with volunteer CHPs that include trained doctors, nurses, PAs, CNAs, EMTs, therapists, social workers, nutrition coaches and other frontline health providers to offer free services.

Shared Harvest | myCovidMD™ aims to reduce health care disparities and the intergenerational wealth gap exacerbated by ballooning student loan debt totals. Notably, African American women carry the largest percentage of student loan debt of any other group. “It is so sad to hear that the everyday heroes that we now see as essential, working to make our lives better, showing up for their communities, are silently drowning in six-figures of student loan debt. Shared Harvest wants to change that because we all benefit from their civic engagement and heart work”, states founder, Dr. Afoh-Manin. “It’s time we support them in ways that matter. It’s time to eliminate their debt burden.” The CHP volunteers receive sponsored funds for their service towards student debt reduction or an emergency savings account.

Founded in 2015, Ballmer Group provides grants and financial support to improve economic mobility, including programs like myCovidMD™ that work toward racial equity in the healthcare and public health systems. “Our communities deserve to be healthy and safe so that all of our kids and families can thrive,” says Nina Revoyr, Executive Director, Ballmer Group – Los Angeles. “Shared Harvest Fund and myCovidMD™ are providing vital, culturally responsive healthcare services in predominantly Black communities that have disproportionate numbers of essential workers, have been under-resourced, and have been especially hard hit by the pandemic.”

At the height of the Coronavirus Public Health crisis, Shared Harvest Foundation Founder, Nana Afoh-Manin, M.D, astutely realized that the health system, especially in marginalized communities, would be tested and overwhelmed. “We need a more unified community response,” explains the ER doctor and disaster medicine specialist. The Shared Harvest | myCovidMD™ initiative is a tactical response to systemic inequities in public health and higher education for marginalized communities of color.” They partner with local nonprofit organizations to identify safe and well-aerated public parking spaces to run the pop-ups and offer testing and wrap around social services to community members. These events decompress ER traffic, but they also quell fear and anxiety while empowering the whole community to be on the right side of history.

Ballmer Group is not the only entity taking notice. Shared Harvest is also receiving praise and support from celebrities, including professional basketball players Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan as well as political commentator, Angela Rye.

Shared Harvest Fund is a Los Angeles-based fintech solution and digital platform that breaks the shackles of student loan debt while doing good together. Founded by African American medical doctors Drs. Nana B. Afoh-Manin, Briana DeCuir, and Joanne Moreau, the fund aims to eliminate student loan debt through skills-based volunteering that pays down student debt while partnering with non-profit organizations, small businesses and corporations aiming to amplify their community impact.

The foundation’s founders have over 35 years of combined experience working in healthcare, graduate education, global health and emergency medicine and have seen firsthand how carrying high amounts of student loan debt affects the health and wellbeing of borrowers and borrowers’ households.

To learn more about the crowdfunding campaign, view the Shared Harvest Foundation GoFundMe page. For more information about the Debtfreelancers™, ChangeMaker, and Harvester programs, view the Fund’s website at sharedharvestfund.org.

About Shared Harvest:

Shared Harvest Fund is a Black and woman-founded social enterprise, led by three doctors whose mission is to reduce the consequential effects of the student loan debt crisis. myCovidMD™ mobilizes Shared Harvest’s network of professional volunteers to serve communities facing social and economic inequities during the public health crisis. Learn more about Shared Harvest at http://www.sharedharvestfund.org.

About Ballmer Group:

Ballmer Group works to improve economic mobility for children and families in the United States who are disproportionately likely to remain in poverty. We believe that building pathways to opportunity requires broad, systemic change, and we work to understand and mitigate the systemic and inequitable impact of race on economic mobility. Ballmer Group was co-founded by philanthropist and civic activist Connie Ballmer and her husband Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, founder of USAFacts, and chairman of the Los Angeles Clippers. Learn more at http://www.ballmergroup.org and on Twitter @BallmerGroup.

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