VOCAL-NY Gala for
justice, compassion & LOVE

Riders Alliance

receiving the Jennifer Flynn VOCAL for
Justice Award

Riders Alliance fights for reliable, affordable, world-class public transit in order to build a more just and sustainable New York.

We organize with bus and subway riders from across the city, with a shared vision: a public transit system that works for every New Yorker, in every community. Together, we hold our elected officials accountable and take direct action to guarantee that riders have a powerful voice in the decisions that affect us.

When we envision the kind of city we want to call home, we see racial justice, economic equality, and climate resilience – and a strong public transit system that connects us all. Our members build out every grassroots campaign, from demands to strategy to targets, with these goals in mind.

Our movement is growing stronger every day. Since we formed in 2012, riders have become one of the most powerful political constituencies in New York City. Our members have identified the most pressing issues facing riders, organized their communities, and successfully lobbied elected officials to commit to ambitious agendas around improving public transit.

Hiawatha Collins

receiving the
Joe Bostic and Jose Capestany VOCAL for Compassion Award

Hiawatha Collins has been a cornerstone of VOCAL-NY since 2009 — first as a leader and advocate with our Users Union, then as a board member beginning in 2012. Over more than fifteen years, he has been instrumental in campaigns to pass statewide overdose prevention and syringe access laws, strengthen patient rights in methadone programs, and improve healthcare access in New York City’s shelter system.

A former Marine, Hiawatha draws on his own lived experience with homelessness, incarceration, and drug use to fuel his advocacy and deepen his community engagement work. His leadership reflects the values at the heart of VOCAL-NY: that people most impacted by unjust systems are best positioned to change them.

Hiawatha is the founder and Co-Director of the Peer Network of New York and has built a distinguished career in harm reduction, with roles at New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE), Community Access, AIDS Center of Queens County, and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He currently serves as the Community and Capacity Building Manager at the National Harm Reduction Coalition.