Our Partners in Solidarity
At Dade County Street Response (DCSR), we believe that no single organization can dismantle systemic inequity alone. We work in deep coalition with academic institutions, grassroots organizers, and medical systems to ensure our patients receive not just a prescription, but a path toward justice and stability.
.png)
Community Emergency Operations Center- DCSR is the Medical Arm
The Community Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) is a multi-organization coalition led by Valencia Gunder of The Smile Trust, co-located with Dade County Street Response at the Freedom Lab.
In times of local disaster or crisis, the Freedom Lab transforms into a centralized operations hub, while the Doctors Within Borders clinic is rapidly mobilized into a field hospital. Together, this coalition provides coordinated, community-led emergency response grounded in trust, proximity, and lived expertise.
The CEOC has responded collectively to local, national, and international disasters, demonstrating the power of community infrastructure to act where traditional systems often fall short. This model has gained national recognition as a leading example of community-led first response and was presented on a global stage at the COP Conference alongside partners connected to the United Nations.
The Healing and Justice Center
The Healing and Justice Center is a community-based public safety initiative working to reduce gun violence, improve health outcomes, and divert people from the criminal legal system as part of a broader effort to end mass incarceration. This work is a partnership between Dream Defenders, Circle of Brotherhood, Dade County Street Response, and Touching Miami with Love. Together, we bring a coalition of community members, violence survivors, artists, healers, healthcare providers, and legal professionals to build a comprehensive, community-rooted continuum of care.
Our approach centers on reducing violence without incarceration, redefining public safety through community leadership, and investing in culturally relevant resources that strengthen neighborhood safety. Grounded in lived experience and collective care, the Healing and Justice Center is working to create sustainable alternatives to policing, punishment, and surveillance while building safer, healthier communities across Miami-Dade.
The Dreamm Project
The DREAMM Project is a community-rooted development partnership between Dade County Street Response and Teen Upward Bound designed to build long-term sustainability for community-based health and safety infrastructure. At its core, DREAMM is a mission-aligned, for-profit development strategy that generates revenue to directly support and expand DCSR’s nonprofit programs.
The project centers on the development of a multi-use site in Opa-locka that includes affordable housing, a school, a community gym, green space, and a medical facility that can function as both a free clinic in times of stability and a field hospital during disasters. By leveraging real estate and community-centered design, DREAMM creates a durable neighborhood anchor that integrates health, education, and economic opportunity in one place.
Revenue generated through housing, commercial use, and programmatic partnerships is reinvested into DCSR’s work, allowing the organization to scale services such as street medicine, mobile crisis response, and disaster relief without relying solely on grants or philanthropy. In this way, DREAMM represents a structural shift, using development as a tool to redistribute resources back into communities and build a self-sustaining model for care.
National Academy of Medicine Climate Communities Network
Dade County Street Response is an active participant in the National Academy of Medicine Climate Communities Network, contributing frontline expertise on how climate change disproportionately impacts underserved communities and how community-based systems can respond in real time.
Through this network, DCSR shares its model of decentralized, rapid-response care including street medicine, mobile crisis response, and disaster relief to inform national strategies that center equity and resilience. DCSR also brings forward lessons from the Community Emergency Operations Center, demonstrating how local coalitions can function as critical infrastructure during climate-related emergencies. By bridging on-the-ground experience with national policy and research, DCSR helps shape scalable approaches to climate preparedness that prioritize those most at risk.
Website: https://nam.edu/our-work/programs/climate-and-health/climate-communities-network/
