Victories

Bowen Public Affairs Consulting, and Andy Bowen (the firm’s principal) working in other contexts, have played major roles in shepherding social justice victories. This necessarily involves a combination of working with community members, non-profits, and policymakers to develop government policy/budget concepts, and then bring them to a finalized, practical, implementable form.

Below is a selected list of government policy/budget victories that Bowen Public Affairs and Andy have played a major role in bringing to the finish line, always in collaboration with community partners and policymakers. For more details on these accomplishments, and how Bowen Public Affairs Consulting can provide similar services for your policy/budget visions, contact andy [at] bowenpublicaffairs [dot] com.

As Bowen Public Affairs Consulting:

• June 2021
  • Attained increases in funding for all clients in the FY22 NYC Adopted Budget
• May 2021
  • Worked with a coalition to advance the Survivors of Trafficking Attaining Relief Together, or START Act, in the NY State Senate and Assembly.
• July 2020:

  • Provided advice and advocacy support to NYC worker cooperative support organizations to preserve City funding despite historically challenging budget conditions.

  • Assisted activists in the District of Columbia in successfully advocating for $500,000, directed to a workforce program for transgender and gender non-conforming runaway and homeless youth. These funds were a successful example of divestment from police and investment in social programming.

• October 2019: UnityWorks, a program from the NYC government, the nation’s most comprehensive workforce development program for Runaway and Homeless LGBTQI+ Youth.
• June 2019: LGBTQ Community Outreach Workers: Multi-year funding for healthcare navigators in NYC’s public hospitals who focus on needs of LGBTQI+ people, and are especially knowledgeable about transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary (TGNCNB) issues.

Andy Bowen, in other contexts:

• June 2016: Worked successfully with NYC Council to advocate for multi-year expansion of NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).
• September 2015: Worked with Jersey City, NJ Mayor Steven Fulop to bring transition-related care (i.e., care specific to TGNCNB people) to its city employees, making Jersey City the first municipality in New Jersey to offer transition-related care.
• February 2014: Worked with the District of Columbia to ensure coverage of transition-related care by DC Medicaid and private insurance policies regulated by the DC government.
• August 2013: Led lobbying efforts with DC Council and its Mayor to pass the Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013, which modernized birth certificate and name correction processes, a topic of special relevance to TGNCNB people who need corrected identity documents.

Other advocacy victories, non-budget/policy

• 2014: Getting the bodega across the street from me to carry S’mores Pop Tarts.