More Ferguson and St. Louis Trainings

Street medics will be at two upcoming direct action trainings in St. Louis, and leading a health and safety in the streets training immediately following Saturdays direct action training. See the flyer below for more information.

Also, this coming Sunday there will be a full day training:

Affinity Group Medic Training

This full day course covers basic first aid knowledge for taking care of yourself and your friends at protests. Going more in depth to the information covered in the shorter Health and Safety training, this training will also cover basic first aid for injuries common or catastrophic at protests, including hypothermia, breathing emergencies, head trauma, car accidents, and gun shot wounds.

This training will also be for healthcare providers who want to help staff first aid stations or help on the street during the expected protests.

Note that this is not a CPR course, any official certification, or the full 20-hour Street Medic Training designed to train people to run as marked medics providing care for an entire crowd of protestors. Sliding scale $0-30, lunch provided, participants will receive a first aid kit.

Registration optional, but highly encouraged: http://goo.gl/forms/euJq3qZTDd

When: Sunday, Nov 9th, 10am-6pm

Where: First Congregational Church, 6501 Wydown Blvd (Btwn Big Bend and Skinker), near Metrolink U City / Big Bend station or Metrobus #2 Red Line

AG training flyer

Support Street Medics in St. Louis and Ferguson

Make ONLINE donations of $10 or more, by clicking here

 NOTE: Online donations will be processed by the Illinois Justice Foundation and Network for Good, and will appear as such on your credit card statement. They are tax-deductible.
Please be sure to enter CAM or “Chicago Action Medical” in the Designation field of the donation form.

Street medics are a nationwide movement of healthcare providers and trained lay volunteers that provide first aid and medical support at protests for social change. In the past three months street medics have been supporting the protests that have been happening almost daily in Ferguson and St. Louis, Missouri. These protests have been in response to the killing of Michael Brown, Jr. by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, as well as in reaction to systematic racial injustice in the police and criminal justice systems that the killing has laid bare.

In the first weeks of protests in Ferguson, street medics from across the country helped to establish a first aid tent, offered health and safety trainings focusing on exposure to chemicals such as tear gas , reached out to local organizations and leaders, and started to build local street medic capacity. All of this was in addition to providing first aid coverage on the streets.

St. Louis now has a small but energized medic collective planning for the larger protests expected if the grand jury returns without an indictment. Street medics will be providing medical care to protestors in places where ambulances will not go. We will also be staffing first aid stations at multiple places of worship. Clergy are organizing these spaces into safe havens for protesters to rest and find sanctuary. Medics are leading comprehensive health and safety workshops, and we are reaching out to local organizations to create specialized trainings for their needs.

Chicago Action Medical (CAM) is a street medic collective that has been on the ground throughout the protests and has taken a lead role in establishing much of the medic infrastructure. CAM members are working full time in St. Louis preparing for the grand jury verdict. Donations made through this site pay for trainings and supplies. All money raised online from now until any actions are over will be spent in St. Louis and Ferguson, according to the needs of the local medics.

It has been an honor to work with the many organizations and individuals who have been leading the protests on the ground. We have been in awe at the power of this movement and look forward to on-going support of these actions, which we believe have the potential to change the national conversation about police and community interaction and bring about real change.