1. Initial thoughts:

• I came in feeling very unsure about if i was going to be able to do this and left feeling confident that is something I can/want to do.
• a lot of information.
• I wish we could have had more info about the organizers in advance.
• More follow up trainings and spaces to practice/additional trainings would be useful.

2. Good:

what

• Techniques to administer first aid.
• Ethics of street medics.
• Trainers constantly reminding us that the ppl are experts in their own care.
• Do no harm.
• Initial training on grounding, calm, approaching, body language, buddy behavior and modeling space based orienting.
• excited to bring my training into my communities/spheres of influences [...] affinity group lens felt really effective & helpful

how

• scenarios and hands on practice opportunities are definitely what I felt i generally learned the most from. I am glad we got the extra practice session at the end of the training with our proctors.
• Learning in small groups
• The website is SUPER helpful and great!
• creating a space where people felt comfortable to share, critique, and learn.
• discussions as a large group, I learned a lot from what the other folks said.
• hospitality [...] I felt supported and cared the entire time, from both hosts, other students, and the trainers/proctors.
• Heat, hot water, food, snacks, and care into every aspect of each day.
• bonfire

3. Do better:

• Time management, keeping to the agenda and being clear about changes, the Rose story went on too long.
• Balance popular education with owning expertise and authority. Balance people taking up too much space and are woker-than-thou.
• Breaks on day 1 as much as day 2 would have been good.
• More practice. [...] more hands-on first aid (but Corona) as while I have the knowledge I feel less confident in actually doing the work in the streets--maybe in lack of being able to actually focus on first aid, maybe offering resources that we can pursue after the training for advanced first aid, other skill sets? I know that also comes with joining collectives & shadowing.
• More clarity on the scenarios.

handouts

• scenarios were useful but it was hard using phones to follow along.
• would have appreciated handouts to supplement lectures.
• The website is super useful. It was hard to write with how cold it was — some sort of handouts or ways to safely record info or photograph info would have been good alternatives for increased accessibility.
• having the stories printed on handouts would have helped out.

4. Learning in pods:

• helpful to learn with ppl who I had a shared trust with and felt comfortable making mistakes and asking questions.
• I learned better because I trusted my pod and felt safe learning in ways that worked for me and messing up.
• I am a person who enjoys talking in smaller groups more than larger groups so having both of each is something I find helpful in my learning.
• Personally, I thought another section or two could have been handled in our small groups to give Ben and Grace more of a break.
• I appreciated having a pod to get to know and come back to with more detailed questions after every section and at the end of each day. It was really helpful for communicating early on, and I was able to catch the Metra with one of my pod members because of it. It was great for creating connections especially because I came alone. There was also plenty of time to get to know people outside our pod
• it allowed for deeper connections with other students over the course of the entire training, informal mentorship from proctors (Fancy's incredible), and through those deeper connections promoted good network building after the training. It was too bad that I never really got to formally meet some of the other students, but I think a lot of that social interaction was curtailed by COVID precautions.
• In post COVID times, I would like more opportunities to mix up small groups and talk to other folks in the room.
• I think there could have been a more intentional introduction round at the beginning of the training to learn everyone's names and pronouns.

5. Proctors:

connection

• Josh was awesome and patient. He inspires confidence and was very affirming but also presented facts. He was honest about what he didn’t know but generous with what he knew [...] I feel comfy comtacting him about medic stuff and running!
• Fancy definitely made it clear that she cared about how we were doing too. She made sure to be very approachable & friendly, and I definitely plan on following up with her to keep learning.
• Claire was great. Thought she did well explaining/elaborating on concepts and taking our feedback seriously.

coordination

• sometimes proctors seemed a little confused on what they were supposed to do next but they seemed to be in better communication towards the end of the weekend.
• it would've been cool to introduce each proctor, hear about any areas of expertise they have, communities they engage in, etc., but I felt comfortable engaging with any of the facilitators.

grounding in experience

• They had great experience that we could draw on ('often it might be because of...', 'I've never really had to worry about...')
• Emily and Martine both had an incredible background of experience and expertise which they used to create important nuance at every point in the training.

6. Trainers:

learning tasks

• Transitions between topics could have been smoother at times.
• great job of presenting a large amount of material in a short amount of time. At times sections felt rushed but it seemed like they prioritized the sections i would have liked them to such as community care and prevention.
• They were both extremely engaging and offered several kinds of techniques for instruction-- lecture, discussion, small and large scale scenarios-- with plenty of room for questions, comments, and reflection. I really appreciated that, especially because it was such a long training.
• I think the lecture-heavy style of the training was a bit tough with the weather, but I'm not sure what an alternative method of teaching might look like.
• appreciated how flexible they both were in adjusting the curriculum. They could tell we were all exhausted on Friday and moved things around so we could rest.
• Trainers could have checked in more when we did pod based learning of ABC.

people

• Grace and Ben complement each other well.
• They did some good facilitation when it was tough and shut down extraneous comments when necessary as the training went on.
• They did a good job at fielding everyone's questions as well and leaving room for themselves to learn as well.
• Grace and Ben were [...] real, transparent, authentic asf and present.
• They felt more like peers than teachers which for me creates a safer learning environment.
• open[ness] to improvements and suggestions and although they were positioned as the teachers, they seemed very open to discussion and thinking about things in new ways.
• They felt very approachable[...], their words/teaching methods felt clear, experienced, but still accessible & engaging.

7. Curriculum:

hard skills

• I think the upside down triangle was genuinely the most important tool of the curriculum (thanks Ben!). The organizational flow from community health work to aiding in crisis truly helped to create a strong ideological foundation for what it means to work as a street medic in and beyond the streets.
• I was hoping for more hard skills
• sections where we discussed symptoms and actual diagnostic things seemed to be rushed at times

community self-determination

• They talked a lot about engage your own communities. It would have been cool to think through and define (our own) communities within which we can do this work and can’t.
• I really appreciated the dual-focus of being a marked medic in the streets & community-care/affinity group medic work.
• I am glad that there was ample time taken for practice and to discuss preventative/community care.
• I am glad the history and reality of the medical system were discussed in reference to institutionalized discrimination.

structure

• regular breaks throughout really helped me process the information, engage informally with other students & facilitators (which helped connect dots, take things farther, start conversations, etc.), and reset emotionally.
• I am glad that they made it clear in the beginning that folks can get up and walk away/take a break/do what they needed to do to stay engaged in the material.
• Though at times information flowed quickly, there was also plenty of moments for practice and further discussion.
• The scenarios and small group learning were especially helpful.
• Practicing scenarios with Martine on Sunday and with the larger group throughout was extremely helpful for absorbing and engaging with what we were learning!

8. Proctors/trainers do better:

manage students

• They could have redirected extraneous comments and instruction being taken over in ways that weren’t altogether useful and quite time consuming.
• It would have been helpful if the trainers/proctors had a mechanism to shut down some of the woke olympics. Perhaps this could have been helped by bringing in “step back/move back” community guideline and reminding people about that? And reminding people of your expertise (while everyone has knowledge that’s important and valuable, trainer knowledge is what many are here for rather than seeing who is more woke in the room)."
• At first when folks were asking questions that were out of their field-house or a contradiction to what they knew they seemed to not know exactly how to handle it - but quickly they got into a flow that created a nice line of conversation between them and the trainees.

starting stronger

• I think introductions of the proctors and trainers the first night would have been helpful. I think it would have stopped some of the one-up-manship on Friday night and moved the training along more.
• I would have appreciated seeing more BIPOC in CAM leadership (especially in trainers and proctors). In long training retreats like this, it's especially important to ensure Black and brown leadership who can offer lived experience and nuanced context that help keep BIPOC students, protesters, and community members safe and cared for. Having little to no BIPOC proctors/trainers a larger, critical conversation about the manifestations of fault lines within CAM and other street medic organizations.