VICE News
Brooklyn's Volunteer Ambulance Service
2014 • E25 Feb 28, 2014 12m
Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood is well past the notoriety it had in the 1980s and 1990s, when the area was neglected and crack dealers violently ruled the streets. Back then, two men began providing much needed help to their underserved community. The Bed-Stuy Volunteer Ambulance Corp was founded in 1988 by Captain James "Rocky" Robinson, an EMS tech, and Specialist Joe Perez. Rocky is still at the helm today, 26 years later, training a new generation to follow in his footsteps. With the community now much safer and better served, he has changed the BSVAC's original mission of saving lives to changing lives — helping young men and women who may not have any other options receive free training and eventually find jobs in the medical field.