Black Thistle Street Aid, a local health care nonprofit dedicated to providing services to Eugene’s unhoused population, hosts its annual fundraiser Friday, August 21 at Gratitude Brewing. Sophia Ricci, Black Thistle co-director, says the nonprofit is celebrating this year’s achievements, such as helping with repairs on a partially burned family-run motel. Black Thistle uses the motel as a medical respite location, providing clients a place to stay while they recover from an injury, take care of a wound or recuperate after experiencing sexual assault. “It costs about $120 to put someone up in a hotel room for a night and it includes things like the stay plus food and hygiene stuff and transportation if they need it,” Ricci says. Other services Black Thistle provides include harm reduction — a public health approach that focuses on minimizing the negative health impacts of substance use — and medical street outreach where members provide basic medical services to those living unhoused. Black Thistle also hosts a weekly pop-up medical clinic and provides reproductive harm reduction supplies like hygiene items, educational materials and prenatal care. Ricci says money raised at the fundraiser directly supports Black Thistle’s programs, allowing them to reach more people on the streets. “Services in general for so many people are decreasing because of the state of the world and because of the state of our country,” Ricci says. “Medical care is increasingly difficult for everybody, but then when you’re on the streets, it’s just that much more difficult.”

    Black Thistle’s annual fundraiser is 5:30 pm Friday, August 21 at Gratitude Brewing, 540 East 8th Avenue. Tickets are $20. NOTAFLOF. For more information visit BlackThistleStreetAid.org.