The official launch of the grassroots organization the WE Movement - which connects people in need with those who can help them - was announced Tuesday morning at The Citizen Hotel in Sacramento.

The WE Movement was formed in March as a community-based outreach effort. Its goal is to help people with any type of need establish contact with those who can provide it. 

Nonpolitical and nonpartisan, the motto is: “Offer What You Can. We Will Do the Rest.” 

“The core of the WE movement is to help coordinate benefits in the areas of health care, financial services, housing, legal guidance, youth programs and education in a way that takes individual contributions and matches them with people in need,” CEO and founder Tom Loker said.

It utilizes The Ramsell Holding Corporation’s HELP4U online software program that links individuals or companies with products, goods and services they wish to donate to individuals, groups or associations in need that can use the donated goods or services. 

The Ramsell Holding Corporation coordinates mental and physical health care benefits for the uninsured and under-served. It has offered the HELP4U program at no charge.

“Going through all the debates around health care reform and the constant back and forth in terms of Republican and Democrats, we really stopped and looked ourselves in the mirror and said, ‘We need to do something,’ ” President and CEO of The Ramsell Holding Corporation Eric Flowers said. 

“We needed to develop something that’s going to make a difference and be a resource that the communities can use that doesn’t lock them up, but really opens them up and empowers them,” he added. “We came up with HELP4U, and we’ve been working on it for a couple years.” 

Loker walked guests through a tutorial of the HELP4U website. 

“In order to help people and coordinate care and benefits to save money and to effectively help individuals in need get everything they have to have, you have to coordinate the actions of four different people,” Loker said.  

The four categories of people he referred to include:

1. Less fortunate individuals in need of assistance. 

2. People like social workers and neighbors who help put those in need in touch with those who can provide it.

3. The people who provide services for those in need, such as doctors, nurses, pastors and financial aid experts.

4. People who are willing to pay for the services.

Some of the most important people in the WE Movement are the people they call the WE champions, according to Loker. These are the people who go out in their communities and help people get involved. The movement is currently recruiting champions. 

“Through the vehicle of the movement, we move from the us and them to the you, the I and the we, and that’s what this is really all about,” first WE Champion Dr. Marsha Martin said. 

“It’s about taking the best of who we are individually as well as a community...and coming together and creating the kind of nexus of communication, coordination and collaboration to be able to help. That is what this is really all about. I am honored to be a part of the WE Movement.”

Martin called on Chief Service Officer to Mayor Kevin Johnson Keith Hart to become a champion in Sacramento and to encourage people to get involved. Martin presented him with a pin in honor for becoming a partner with the WE Movement. 

“Mayor Kevin Johnson has been a champion when it comes to volunteer and civic engagement ever since he has stepped into the office of mayor and even before that. This is something he is very excited about,” Hart said. 

The movement has been a work in progress for about a year and a half and will require another three or four months to get all the pieces together. It now has about $1.5 million invested in it, according to Loker. 

On that note Loker added, “We are not asking people for money, we are asking for a commitment to go out and help others and communicate to others to help others.” 

According to WE Movement Public Relations Cherie Kerr, in early fall organizers plan to visit Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco and Fresno to recruit champions. 

For more information visit www.wemovement.org.