A Year Behind Us

5/31/21 marked the one year anniversary of Black Thistle Street Aid.

In the shadow of the COVID-19 Pandemic our collective of street medics, nurses, herbalists and doctors came together in response to calls for support of the Black Lives Matter uprising of 2020 after the murder of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and hundreds of others.

In the police violence that erupted towards protestors that summer, our team quickly began to see an escalation of tangential violence towards our unhoused neighbors and pivoted to devote dedicated time to street outreach as well as continued protest support.

Then the wildfires came.

Though we had only been partnered for a few short weeks, our outreach mentors C.O.R.E went all in with us, and in a few short days we raised over $20,000 and sheltered over 44 medically vulnerable unhoused neighbors through the natural disaster providing medical care, food and social services.

In December, while we were still licking out wounds from wildfire response, still desperately trying to control a recent outbreak of COVID-19 amongst our unhoused neighbors, the City of Eugene launched a brutal series of sweeps that displaced hundreds of our neighbors attempting to shelter outside. Though this wasn’t a new tactic by any means, the context of their brutality launched our team into a whole new network of sweeps response allies, and we participated in one of the most productive call outs in Eugene history.

It has been one hell of a year, and we don’t think any of us will ever be the same. There is still so much work to be done, but we are so honored to be a part of this little radical community we call home.

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