Milwaukee City Wire

Rep. David Bowen (D-WI) stands with a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the black community. 

The nonprofit organization called BLOC, or Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, focuses on leveraging political action coupled with training, empowerment and resources to ensure political representation throughout the government.

"Proud to stand with @blocbyblocMKE, The Peoples Revolution and other groups to keep the ball moving on the call for change after the Speaker Task Force for Racial Disparities has yet to take up other blocked police reform solutions like those in the #EnoughisEnough Justice Package," Bowen (D-WI) said in a June 30 tweet.

Milwaukee-based BLOC is dedicated to helping and uplifting black communities in the city and across the state. 

The BLOC website states that "the concerns and needs of the communities we represent always come first. Community-based organizing and face-to-face conversations lead to change. So we listen in order to build transformational, not transactional, relationships."

The nonprofit has multiple campaigns and petitions listed on its site, as well as various resources and ways to get involved. 

The target goals for BLOC are to invest in the community, provide the black population higher access to economic opportunities and provide black leaders with the resources to ensure that their "issues, concerns and values are represented at all levels of government."

In August 2019, BLOC pressed the Milwaukee mayor to invest $25 million in black communities. They also knocked on over 10,000 doors to speak with Milwaukee residents which resulted in unanimous wants and needs from the black community. At the top of the list were safety, employment, recreational activities and quality and affordable housing.

Following the 2019 discovery, BLOC released a statement saying they "implore the mayor and the common council to stand with the desires of residents and pass a budget that reflects the right of people to have the Freedom to Thrive."

A child of Jamaican immigrants, Bowen has represented the 10th District of Wisconsin since he assumed office in January 2015. Currently, he serves in the Children and Families Committee, Corrections Committee, Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee and the Jobs and the Economy Committee.