Events & news
upcoming, current & historical
Join us for Community drop-in at The Settlement
1st & 3rd Wednesday back on 16 Sept 2026
Coming soon : 2025 - 2023 News and Events update
July 2023: New home for Community Drop-in Treatments
Find us at The Settlement Neighbourhood Community Centre, 17 Edward St. Redfern.
* 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month
* Drop-in window is 6.30 - 7.30pm
* Still good to come at 7.30pm
* Plan to stay for an hour
Sharing stories of struggle, resilience, laughter & hope at the Edward Street Fair : 20 November 2022
In solidarity with The Settlement neighbourhood centre on Gadigal Land in the central Sydney area. This year’s Edward Street Fair celebrated 130 years of The Settlement creating opportunities and connecting community.
Forty (40) treatments based on 5NP/the 5-Needle-Protocol aka NADA ear protocol in our open-air treatment and hang-out space were delivered during the four (4) hours of the Edward Street Fair. Some people came solo, some came with friends combining a social and therapeutic experience, while others brought the whole family in to share the treatment together. For many, it was their first experience of ear acupressure, acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.
Plans are underway for ongoing Community NADA treatments at The Settlement in 2023.
Find The Settlement Neighbourhood Centre
on Gadigal Land
17 Edward Street, Redfern NSW
ph: 02 9698 3087. e: info@thesettlement.org.au
The Soup of Human Kindness with a side of NADA
at Parliament On King
From May 2022 we are partnering with the #ParliamentOnKing Soup Kitchen to deliver no-cost, mental health support treatments to workers and volunteers the last Saturday of every month.
“…At Parliament on King the idea is simple. Here’s how it works:
* Our asylum seeker and refugee chefs get paid to make lovely meals. * Those meals then get donated to the homeless and those in need...”
This year, Culturs Global Multicultural Magazine is focusing on “community”
Dr. Rhonda Coleman highlights a community acupuncture organization that really takes the idea of community health to heart, especially as we celebrate “love” in this summer issue. (USA 06/2021)
Healthcare for All
Acupuncture for Community is honoured to be a core member of the international Barefoot Acupuncture Movement (BAM) and Regional Partner for Australia.
BAM is on a mission to empower others through community health education and service, and that takes a whole lot of love.
By partnering with and offering safe and sustainable models of healthcare, [BAM members] have found that even the most marginalized and under-resourced communities can use acupuncture to build resilience and self-sufficiency in response to violence, poverty and injustice.
Click images to read the full transcript of Dr. Rhonda Coleman’s beautiful, in-depth exploration of Community for the 2021 Summer edition of Global Culturs Magazine (USA 06/21).
Barefoot Acupuncture NADA Training Juarez Mexico. Photo: Ryan Bemis.
NADA work in Australia Grows
In late 2020, Sydney based Acupuncture for Community launched a new website. Check-out their work and latest news & events. There is NADA work in dozens of countries across the world. Learn more about NADA work beyond North America.
Acupuncture for Community is based in Sydney, Australia. We are a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to community wellness & social justice. We use acupuncture in service of community-led empowerment work that challenges systemic health disparities & structural systems of harm.
We offer harm reduction, trauma-informed acupuncture treatments & trainings in collaboration with community members, peer-based organisations, community-controlled care services & transformative justice organisations.
Relax, Re-charge, Re-ground
March - May 2021 : Every Sunday at the Genki Centre
Simple, judgement free treatments supporting people negotiating the impacts of Chronic Stress, Substance use Dependencies, Emotional & Spiritual Trauma, Mental & Behavioural Health Struggles.
Come by yourself or with your circles to Relax, Re-charge & Re-ground.
Accessibility info: 3 steps at both street door entry & up to treatment space inside. Gender neutral toilet doors open inwards.
Drop-in arrival : 2-3pm : Every Sunday in March through to end May
Sliding Scale Donation : $10 - $30 Pay what you can / Pay it forward to sustain this work
Allow 1 hour after your arrival for treatment
Relax, Re-charge & Re-ground: By-donation Ear Acupuncture in Sydney
Relax, Re-charge & Re-ground in these group treatment sessions at the community-run space of The Red Rattler Theatre : Covid-Safe
Weekly on Wednesdays : Simple NADA Acudetox ear acupuncture or no-needle acupressure treatments. Assists with release of tension & stress for the promotion of a sweeter sleep.
Chemical-free Non-verbal No judgement Mutual Aid
No appointment : Wednesday evenings
Drop-in arrival : 6.30-7.30pm
*Sliding scale $10-$30*
Pay what you can - Pay it forward with $30 to sustain this work.
We ask everyone to *wear a face mask* in health-safety solidarity for immune-compromised participants.
Allow 1 hour after your arrival for the treatment. Plus 15 mins for Covid-safety + initial informed consent needs.
Come alone or with your circles.
Come once, come every week, come at random intervals - whatever works best with where you’re at.
Honoring Dr Mutulu Shakur & the 50th Anniversary of the People’s Detox Center (Lincoln Hospital)
Live recording of this Historic Virtual Celebration recognizing The 50th Anniversary of the November 10, 1970 Launching of Lincoln Detox with Special Tribute To It's Founding Practitioner Dr. Mutulu Shakur.
hosted by The People's Survival Program, Black Panther Party, Young Lords Party, and maroon party for liberation www.maroonparty.com, FB/IG FSUMC First Spanish United Methodist Church (The People's Church), and Zulu Nation Department of Community Affairs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqSpT9rqNs4
50th Anniversary of the People’s Detox clinic launch at Lincoln Hospital
On Nov 10, 1970 members of the Young Lords, Black Panthers, & members of the Health Revolutionary Unity Movement (a mass organization of health workers), with the support of the Lincoln Collective took over Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, NY. This takeover of Lincoln Hospital marked the beginning of the People’s Detox Center.
Today, on the 50th anniversary of this event we honor the activists, organizers, collectives, & broader South Bronx community who created the conditions for the NADA protocol to later be developed.
Original Source: https://acudetox.com/nada-celebrates-50th-anniversary-of-the-takeover-of-lincoln-hospital/
DOPE IS DEATH + Q&A
For over 50 years, alternative medicine practitioners have advocated the use of acupuncture as part of treatment for drug addiction. However, few people know that this practice evolved in large part thanks to the Black Panthers, radical liberation politics and Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Tupac Shakur’s stepfather.
Dope is Death turns the clock back to 1970, at the height of the heroin epidemic in the South Bronx, where a group of political radicals—fed up with inaction—occupied New York’s Lincoln Hospital.
Under the leadership of Shakur, the Lincoln Detox clinic became the first and only politically run drug treatment program funded by the US government.
Inspiring and enraging in equal measure, the story of Lincoln Detox and the civil rights organizations that supported it testifies to the continuous need to explore this period in US history—a time that, until recently, has often been misrepresented. Aisha Jamal IMDB
Free radical self-care treatment sessions No cost, weekly solidarity treatment sessions starting Wednesday 8 April, 8PM AEST/12:00 CET. Delivered in English.
Connect in to these online non-verbal, group ear acupressure sessions to de-stress while coming together in person in this time of Pandemic may not be possible. Options to attend anonymously.