Last month was Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Month. As a top DC lobbying firm, we helped our client, the National Association of State Head Injury Administrators (NASHIA), by setting up more than 50 Hill meetings. We worked as a team to build a multiple-day event. This included preparation for meetings so that attendees felt confident going into meetings with Members of Congress or their staff, a full day of Hill meetings, and a webinar.
In addition to supporting this year’s advocacy day, we helped to provide additional strategic consultation for the NASHIA team to facilitate conversations with legislators and their staffs, specifically to reach their appropriations goals. We did this work by developing appropriations asks, including requests for increases in funding. We also organized sign-on letters from our House and Senate champions to support NASHIA’s funding requests.
We were able to secure a House and Senate lead for our letter. After meetings, our team followed up with Congressional staff to ensure we secured signatures to this letter, highlighting the importance of this issue. Our two asks were increasing funding for the TBI State Partnership program to $19M this year to ensure that every state can receive a grant to build systems of support for people living with brain injury. We also asked for $5 million for the CDC Concussion Surveillance System. There is currently a lack of data on the national incidence of brain injury.
Ridge Policy Group, as one of DC’s top government affairs firms, helps provide many services like these for our clients. Given our extensive connections in government relations, we can also organize Congressional events, such as receptions and briefings. This includes providing recommendations on speakers and heling secure their attendance. We also provide strategic ideas on the topics for the reception depending on the relevant issues to the community.
Hosting a Congressional reception or similar forms of outreach that targets specific audiences can create much greater awareness for lawmakers and enforcers across Capitol Hill. Ridge Policy Group works hard to make sure these events go as smoothly as possible. We do this by creating an invitation to the event and identifying, inviting, and securing attendance of key staff and community members. We also secure press officials, which may include helping to place an opinion editorial or press statement ahead of the event to garner additional attendance. Finally, we support all other logistics, such as setting up the collecting RSVPs, sending follow-up and reminder emails, etc.
During the pandemic, RPG has not stopped providing opportunities for their clients to connect to the Hill. Given the uncertainty around COVID-19 and the US Capitol’s security, RPG works hard to identify locations that provide flexibility, refund policies, or other accommodations in case we need to move the event to a later date or provide hybrid options with web hosting services.
The Ridge Policy Group sponsors a number of social and networking events throughout the year that provide our clients with an opportunity to meet and interact with United States policy makers in an informal setting. Our annual “Welcome Back to Congress” reception has become a hallmark event in DC, and we also provide smaller events that provide clients with access to specific policymakers or organizations of interest.
No matter the event, each government affairs strategy is developed depending on the specific needs and style of each client. We begin each relationship with a strategic planning session to determine the most productive way to work together. We are grateful to our client, NASHIA, for their trust in this year’s Advocacy Day and look forward to helping future clients with similar events.