NEW YORK — With presidential politics heating up, Andre Banks, a veteran communicator with expertise in social impact, has launched a new comms agency aimed at giving voice to constituents who frequently go unheard.

A/B Partners, which is formally up and running after a 10-month incubation, is specializing in working with advocacy organizations, some of which are already on its client roster.

Human Rights Watch, Black Futures Lab, the Brooklyn Community Foundation and B Lab are among the organizations whose stories A/B is charged with bringing into the mainstream conversation. Doing so is particularly important at a time when they can have real-life impact on voting, said Banks, who most recently served as BerlinRosen’s head of social impact.

“This is an election banking its hopes on the rising American electorate, meaning it is more important than ever that presidential candidates authentically connect and mobilize progressive women, Black and Latinx communities ahead of 2020. But with much of the media and political apparatus limited by the lack of true representation, key communities’ perspectives on the crises facing our country are sorely missed from the debate,” Banks said.

“The election is going to really define not just the next four years but the next 10 or 20 years. We want to make sure as a firm we are helping candidates who want to speak (to underrepresented communities), people who want to be pushed to the center of politics.”

Banks said A/B has built a team well-equipped to handle that sort of work, having clearly stated its mission in hiring people from across the agency, political, social impact and business worlds. A/B’s 11-person team includes five women and seven people of color, including the CEO, a partner and the creative director.

Banks brings to the agency years of personal experience as well.  In addition to his BerlinRosen work, he co-founded the global LGBT+ human rights organization All Out and was a founding co-partner at the social impact agency, Purpose. He is a former member of the global board of Amnesty International and currently co-chair of the leading racial justice organization, Color Of Change.