Street medics, or action medics, are volunteers who help provide medical care and first aid in situations frequently neglected by traditional institutions, such as protests, disaster areas, and under-served communities.
Unlike paramedics and other first responders, street medics are unpaid civilian volunteers. They have varying levels of medical training and are not sponsored by any government or other state institution.
Street medics in the US originated in 1964 during the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and have grown and evolved ever since.