Intern with the Doula Project!
Doula Project Internship Description
Organization's Mission:
The Doula Project is an
NYC-based organization that provides free compassionate care and emotional,
physical, and informational support to people across the spectrum of pregnancy.
We work to create a society in which all pregnant people have access to the
care and support they need during their pregnancies and the ability to make
healthy decisions for themselves, whether they face birth, miscarriage,
stillbirth, fetal anomaly, or abortion.
The Doula Project has
local and national programming. Locally, we organize and train volunteers on
the doula model of care in abortion clinics. We place our trained doulas in
clinics that we partner with and manage the relationship between the two. We
also partner with an adoption agency and birth centers in NYC to provide free
birth doula support to their clients. We organize monthly meetings for our
doulas, which include skills-based trainings and a chance to talk about their
experiences as doulas and connect with other doulas in the project. Nationally,
we provide training, guidance, and resources to activists and health
professionals interested in the abortion doula model of care.
Internship Description:
A huge part of being a
doula is having the desire and capacity to support another person through a
powerful physical and emotional journey: pregnancy. This spring, we are looking
for awesome and engaged interns to help us serve people across the spectrum of
pregnancy in New York City clinics and hospitals in the following ways:
·
50%-60% of the intern's
position will be to work as a doula daily in the abortion clinics we partner
with. At the onset of the internship, we will provide our intern with a 12-hour
classroom training we provide on the abortion doula model of care, followed by
supervised clinic training. Interns will spend 5-8 hours a day serving as a
doula and patient advocate, 3-5 days a week, or as needed. This involves
traditional doula roles of providing emotional, physical, and informational
support to clients. Interns will be with clients before, during and after
procedures. They will spend time in the waiting and recovery rooms and be
present in the procedure and operating rooms while patients undergo their
terminations. 5% of the internship will be time to read, watch, and learn about
all the different aspects of pregnancy. In order to be a good doula, it is very
important the intern have a comprehensive understanding of what happens during
pregnancy and its outcomes. We will facilitate this by providing reading
material, opportunities to attend workshops and trainings, and significant
opportunities to watch abortion procedures and speak with residents and
attending doctors.
·
15%- 25% of the internship
will be working on the birth side of our project if they are already a trained
birth doula. The Doula Project provides individual mentorship and training,
opportunities to attend a birth with a trained doula, introductions to clients
and partner organizations, and opportunities to speak with birth doulas who are
part of our project. If an intern chooses to do their birth doula training in
conjunction with this internship we will include their training time as part of
the internship and help match them to birth clients. If an intern is already a
doula, we will match them to birth clients at the onset of their internship.
·
20% of the internship
will be to provide programmatic and communications support to the project
coordinators. This includes: helping organize monthly meetings, sending out
scheduling reminders to doulas, updating our website and social networking
sites, editing and writing pieces of our training toolkit, and other tasks as
they come up.
·
If an intern is
interested in working on an independent project for 10-15% of their time, the
above percentages of time are negotiable.
Being allowed into the
room with a person who is facing birth or abortion is an awesome
responsibility, an amazing opportunity, and above all, a privilege. We look
forward to having the support, energy, and skills that an intern would bring to
our work.
Skills Needed:
·
Previous clinical
experience ideal, clinical inclination a must;
·
Currently a birth doula
and/or strong knowledge of pregnancy, childbirth and abortion; if not currently
a birth doula, willing to seek out training and scholarships with the DP’s
assistance;
·
Interested in direct
service work, working with patients/clients daily;
·
Ability to communicate
easily and effectively with large groups of people;
·
Capacity to support
people facing difficult and emotional situations;
·
Capacity to work in
high-stress, high-endurance settings;
·
Capacity to work in
hospitals/clinics daily, not behind a desk in an office;
·
Extremely extroverted,
outgoing personality, comfortable with meeting new people daily;
·
Comfortable working with
medical professionals and being exposed to blood and medical procedures,
including second trimester abortion procedures (remember, they’re much
different than first trimester procedures!)
·
Comfortable with touching
patients/clients and providing physical support measures;
·
Self-motivated and
independent;
comfortable with taking on leadership roles;
·
Basic computer skills;
·
Strong written and oral
skills
We want to stress that
this is a direct service position – anyone looking to work in an office should
not apply. While this position will be highly supervised, the nature of this
work is geared toward people who are interested in working independently with
patients as well as in collaboration with doctors and medical professionals.
Since the majority of the direct service work will involve talking to patients,
hearing their stories, and advocating for them, we are looking for someone who
is outgoing, a good listener, and has A LOT of patience and tact. Additionally,
because we work in hospitals, interns will be drug-tested at the beginning of
the internship as part of the hospital physical and should be prepared to pass
that test.
Language Requirements:
English; Spanish highly
desired.
Location:
The internship takes
place in various clinics and hospitals throughout the NYC area, mainly in
Manhattan and Brooklyn, all near public transportation. We currently run our
abortion service out of one of NYC's largest public hospitals, and two of
Planned Parenthood’s satellite sites.
Work Hours:
Flexible Hours, Minimum 20 hours per week. Interns must be able
to provide at least three full days per week,
Monday-Saturday when they can plan to be present in clinic.
Schedules will be given
on a monthly basis and will be based on the needs of the clinic. If the intern
is attending a birth, scheduling arrangements will be made to accommodate time
off depending on the length and timing of the labor. Administrative tasks may
be done from home, if preferred. We are happy to honor requests made in advance
for time off. Please note that there are times where we may need a doula
urgently, without much advance notice. Unless the intern has requested time off
beforehand, they will be the first person we contact.
Dress Code:
Casual and clean, but
professional. No bra straps, midriff-bearing tops, mini-skirts or shorts;
comfortable shoes. Scrubs can either be bought beforehand or can be provided as
needed, usually at least one day a week.
How to apply
Please write a cover
letter that includes a brief personal statement that responds to the following
questions (limit 100-500 words): What does the phrase “Spectrum of Choice” mean
to you? How do you see this phrase as being relevant to being a doula?
Please also submit a
resume highlighting your work in reproductive health, rights, or justice,
counseling, social work, doula work, our health services. Please also submit 2
references who would not mind being contacted.
Applications must be
submitted by December 15th, 2015 to jtrothschild [at] gmail.com
