- Internships are 10 weeks.
- The stipend for 2008 is $3000.
Summer Internship Program
MergerWatch
Organization's Mission:
The MergerWatch Project was founded in 1996 at the Education Fund of Family Planning Advocates of New York State. The Project was created after a merger between religious and secular hospitals in Troy, NY, caused the loss of contraceptive services at an outpatient clinic that had been operated by the secular hospital. MergerWatch was created to find ways of intervening to save key reproductive health services before religious/secular mergers were given government approval and finalized. Since its founding, MergerWatch has assisted grassroots coalitions fighting to protect services threatened by religious/secular hospital mergers in more than 50 communities located across the nation.
Specific RRASC Project:
Raising Women’s Voices: With the national attention on health care reform, we want to focus on addressing broader women’s health issues. MergerWatch, along with the Avery Institute for Social Change and the National Women’s Health Network have started a project, Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need.
Raising Women's Voices collaborators have been conducting small-group discussions with women from all age groups and from a range of racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds, as well as diverse sexual identities. We have asked about their experiences with the health care system and, based on those experiences, what kinds of changes they would like to see. We have spoken with teenagers learning about their bodies and sexuality; young women navigating the transition from education into the workforce and the health insurance transition that accompanies that life-change; new mothers, reflecting on the experience of childbirth; recent immigrants to this country, women who are victims of domestic violence; women who have suffered divorce or widowhood; middle-aged women struggling to coordinate care for older relatives; as well as older women coping with chronic illnesses.
We support quality, affordable health care for all – and we are working to raise women's voices for the health care we need. Our goal is to engage a broad array of women's health and reproductive justice advocates in local, state and national health reform discussions. We want to ensure that women's concerns will be addressed and the health care we get will truly be health care for all.
Internship Description:
The RRASC intern would be working closely with the Director of Advocacy on the Raising Women’s Voices Project. The central tasks would be as follows:
- Assist in organizing and mobilizing the Young Women’s Healthcare Action Network – an upcoming national initiative of RWV.
- Track and research national and state health care reform efforts, focusing on the effects of current/emerging legislation and how it affects marginalized communities.
- Have the opportunity to liaise with national and statewide women’s health and reproductive justice groups on health care reform. Specifically, work with MergerWatch staff on the New York State Universal Healthcare Taskforce.
- Other projects and duties will be assigned to fit the interests and skills of the intern.
Skills Needed:
- Writing
- Media/Tech Skills
- Research
- Ability to interact effectively with diverse constituencies (especially young people and communities of color).
- Experience with “Web 2.0” (Facebook/Myspace/YouTube) organizing would be very helpful.
Basic word processing (MS Access/Powerpoint/Excel etc.)
Background:
Knowledge of health care reform would be useful but certainly is not mandatory
