Many of our members have gotten questions about where the EWOKS have been. We haven’t been as visible out on the ground at protests as much because of a combination of factors that many of our comrades have surely also experienced: the often unpredictable nature of direct actions and uncertainty about whether or not medic support is going to be a necessity, personnel burnout, and dwindling resources across the community. In some mutual aid efforts, we may not be “marked up” and identifiable. Many of our members participate autonomously in various other mutual aid projects as well. As a result of these factors, we have spent much of the winter and spring trying to build a sustainable structure for our organization.

Many of you have attended our workshop series, and we’re excited to be working on a resource that everyone can access via our website with lots of information on the topics that we’ve covered (coping skills, grounding, body work, deescalation, conflict communication…) including slide presentations, transcripts, and video recordings of lectures. We’re working to make these resources as accessible as possible! We’re also starting a kind of study group to help participants practice these skillsets in a way that helps grow their confidence while working up to using these skills in real-life situations. We hope to in the future be able to host a digital classroom space where people can absorb knowledge at their own convenience. We plan to have an update on this effort by the end of summer.

We’ve also been spending time networking and collaborating with other organizations across the PNW and the US, sharing knowledge and experience that we’ve gained over the past months.

What’s coming up

Over the summer, we’ll be hosting a series of workshops facilitated by our friends and partners. We’ll be posting more info here and on our social medias soon; you can also sign up to receive emails from us on our Home page.

Our regular workshop season runs from September to May; to suggest ideas for future workshops please send us an email at ewokspdxmedic@protonmail.ch.

We’re also gearing up in anticipation of what by many accounts threatens to be another bad season of wildfires. Preparations include compiling knowledge about how people can protect their homes and prepare for many possibilities, as well as starting to collect items we know from our experiences last year will be difficult to source once the smoke rolls in. We’re gearing up for a fundraising push to support this effort, but donations are welcome at any time to our Cashapp: $pdxewoks. (We are working on setting up other donation options and will definitely let everyone know when those are available!)

The last year has been an extremely difficult time, and we’re thankful to provide and receive the mutual support of our Community! If you’re interested in joining us, check out this page.