Are You Mad Yet, Street Medics?

1 September 2021

Dear Street Medics Dallas,

It’s Innuendo here, and I need your attention for several minutes.

Last year, we collectively got angry and decided to band together to support the people in the streets who were standing up against white supremacy and police brutality. From there, Street Medics Dallas has continued to stand with those channeling their anger at the state of our society into working in our community, through both protest, as well as community building and care. We NEED this angry momentum to return. SMD will die otherwise.

In the last month, the moratorium on evictions has expired, putting millions at risk of homelessness across the country. Thousands are at risk here in Dallas County, and resources are already limited. People are going to suffer, and people will die on the streets. For some of our unhoused neighbors, Street Medics Dallas has been the only healthcare that they have received recently. Oh, and also, as of today, Texas has outlawed unhoused camping on public property. It is now a misdemeanor, as well as a $500 fine.

Are you angry yet? Are you wondering how this affects SMD and why I’m bringing it up?

We are likely to start seeing more and more righteously angry community members standing up to say “enough,” and we want to be there to support them. We want to be able to continue to provide regular health checks for Camp Rhonda, and we would like to regularly check on the other camps around town. We want to be able to continue to participate in the Rainbow Coalition. We want to continue to attend protests. We want to train YOU, our members, to both be better street medics, as well as some to be CPR/First Aid trainers. We want to offer those trainings to those in our community.

We want to do all the things, but engagement has been at near zero and the money is running out. I love this organization. I don’t want to see it die, but Gear, Geo, Chairman, and I need help.

Here are ways you can help save SMD and/or channel your own anger into something good:
We are having a fundrazer campaign right now. You can share this link on your social media, with your friends, with your company, with your mom. I don’t know, but I do know that shares help: check it out here! To that same end, we also have our Venmo information listed here, on our website, so that people can donate directly to us, should they wish.

Do you have a friend that is looking to do some mutual aid and community care work? Someone who needs community service hours? We need volunteers. We NEED volunteers. Please send them our way. Consider committing to working one SMD event per month, for the rest of the year. We really need the extra hands.

None of these are requirements to stay a part of Street Medics Dallas, by the way. Please consider those to be both suggestions and my pleas for help to save SMD. Help preserve the work we are passionate about in DFW.

Any sharing, volunteering, or referral of volunteers helps.

Thank you for your time, SMD. I appreciate you.

Innuendo