Street Medicine Team

Who We Are

The Street Medicine Team (SMT) formed in 2019 from what was originally HIV Prevention Services (HPS). HPS formed in 1989 to offer HIV testing and, in response to HIV stigma and criminalization, offered all services anonymously. Test counseling appointments centered bodily autonomy and privacy - things that public health often denies to people at risk for and living with HIV. Over the years, most anonymous test sites closed due to pressures from public health departments and funding sources, especially when California switched to name- based HIV reporting in 2006.

Over the years, HPS evolved to meet the health needs of people in the East Bay and began conducting more outreach. The section expanded its services to include hepatitis C testing and routine vaccinations in addition to HIV testing. In 2016, we began ramping up our Street Medic services in response to local fascist activity and in 2017, we responded to the California hepatitis A outbreaks by providing outreach vaccination. We eventually renamed ourselves the Street Medicine Team when we realized we needed a more descriptive name.

What We Do

The field of street medicine as we practice it is a combination of skills, protocols, and ideas drawn from HIV test counseling, wilderness first responder training, disaster response training, and protest street medicine. Whether we’re working at street actions, encampments, or post-disaster situations, professional medical care is often delayed, inaccessible, or non- existent. We seek to fill this gap by providing first-aid, simple protocol-based medical services, and preventative care.

Our medical services include care that can be safely provided by lay health workers in outreach settings: STI testing and treatment, vaccinations, foot care, wound care, lice and scabies treatment, naloxone training, and distribution of health, hygiene, and harm reduction supplies.

Our goal is to provide people with the information they need to make empowered decisions about their health. As such, we work from a harm-reduction philosophy that supports people in making their own choices without feeling stigmatized or judged. We provide free services to anyone without eligibility screening, no questions asked.

We are the only group left in the Bay Area (aside from a student run program at Stanford) that provides anonymous HIV testing. SMT acknowledges the role of state surveillance in perpetuating violence and stigma against people living with HIV and as such, we respect the wishes of people who wish to remain anonymous. When people mistrust health workers, including us, we respect that that mistrust is grounded in real experiences regardless of how we might feel about it.

As an anarchist collective rooted in the traditions of street medicine, we also provide medical support to protests and direct actions. When we have the capacity to do so, we provide street medic trainings to the public.

Volunteer Training

SMT is an all-volunteer, consensus based collective. SMT is not taking any additional volunteers at this time. Keep an eye on the website for updates about when our next training will be! They generally occur 1-2x per year.

SMT recognizes that harm reduction and other HIV interventions have been created and led by QTPOC, people who use drugs, and/or sex workers and that these communities have taken major risks to advance public health. We do not colonize or co-opt community knowledge but strive to honor its history, share our resources with the community, and center marginalized populations in everything we do. We prioritize including people who are often excluded from the medical community, including Black and Native American people, queer and trans people, people who use drugs, sex workers, people living with HIV, disabled and neurodivergent people, and people who’ve experienced homelessness.

Recruitment

We are not currently recruiting.

The Street Medicine Team (SMT) consists of lay health care workers who approach healthcare from the perspective of mutual aid - we are providing support to our fellow community members as an act of solidarity, not “saving” or “helping” people.

We reject the idea that we are “better” in any way than the people who receive our services and do not approach our work as charity. We prioritize applicants who come from the communities we serve. Queer and trans folks, poor folks, people of color, chronically ill, neurodivergent, and disabled people, people who use drugs, sex workers, and HIV-positive folks are welcomed and encouraged to apply. We believe in actively cultivating an intergenerational community and encourage older folks to apply as well.

The BFC Street Medicine Team (SMT) provides both outreach and in-clinic medical services, including STI testing and treatment, vaccinations, overdose prevention training, harm reduction supply distribution, foot care, and wound care.

No prior medical experience is required. Volunteers receive training to cover all services that we provide.

SMT requires a commitment of at minimum 2 years, including training.