What is street medicine?

Street medicine is part of a wider radical, abolitionist movement, grounded in the histories and healing practices of colonized, occupied, and enslaved people. Street medicine specifically addresses the ways in which medicine as an institution has been weaponized to control and harm oppressed people—our bodies, our communities, and our struggle for liberation. Street medicine dismantles the control our oppressors have over us through the medical industrial complex by practicing care within our own communities in order to restore our collective autonomy. Street medicine recognizes and centers the experiences of oppressed people in our practice of care, medicine, and healing.

What is action medical?

Action medical is the provision of care in the diverse and challenging environments offered by uprisings, protests, blockades, occupations, encampments, marches, civil disobedience, and other direct actions. In the so-called US, action medical has traditionally been provided by trained street medics. However, action medical responses may also be offered by lay first-aiders, firefighters, and medical professionals who are not street medics.

Affinity group medic vs. medic affinity group vs. medic collective

An affinity group is a group of people who come together to accomplish a shared objective. Affinity group medics, also known as embedded medics, are (usually unmarked) medics that exist within and support a specific affinity group or organization with its goal or mission. While an affinity group medic may help people outside the team they are serving, their primary responsibility is to the group. Unlike marked street medics, affinity group medics are not bound by the expectation of tactical neutrality.
Street medic affinity groups are affinity groups that solely provide action medical services and exist to support mobilizations and direct actions, usually in a particularly geographic region. Since a street medic affinity group is committed to serving all the groups at a protest, they are typically marked and are bound by tactical neutrality. While marked, they do not participate in other tactics other than action medical.
Street medic collectives often form out of street medic affinity groups. They have points of unity and a formal covenant that describes how decisions are made and how membership is defined. Street medic collectives often engage in radical community health organizing in between direct actions.

Values/covenants of street medic collectives

Most street medic collectives share a social covenant. The details of each covenant may vary broadly from one collective to the next but are clearly defined within each collective. NYCAM’s values include:

• Anti-Oppression
• Radical Consent & Patient Autonomy
• Security Culture
• Autonomy of Risk
• Horizontal Decision Making
• Commitment to the Cause
• Tactical Neutrality
• Commitment to Continuing Education
• Ethical Transfer of Care and Adherence to Scope of Practice

Community Care

Street medics have a rich history of serving local communities and resisting the medical-industrial complex by:

• Setting up walk-in or pop-up clinics
• Providing care for people without housing
• Assisting larger health organizations with on-the-ground outreach
• Home care for elders / disabled comrades
• Harm reduction and safe injection/use sites
• Supporting food and mutual aid distros
• Promoting community health education
• Doula and midwifery support

History and Archives

Put our expanded history section with photos