I AM A LOOKING TO GO

Calling Repro Freedom Dreamers & Doers! AMSA Reproductive Health Institute 2023 – Applications OPEN!

December 03, 2022

Applications Open NOW!
Deadline: Tuesday, January 10, 2023
11:59pm PST

 

 

Calling Repro Freedom Dreamers & Doers!

Written by Jeff Koetje, MD, AMSA Reproductive Health Programming Strategist 

 

The “WHY”

The late civil rights activist, Toni Cade Bambara, once said:

The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”

At a time when authoritarian and fascist movements in the US are organizing to reverse more than 60 years of gains in human and civil rights, we – those of us on the side of freedom, truth, and beauty – must present a compelling and irresistible vision for collective liberation, freedom, and flourishing. Too often, the side of freedom fails to convey what we are actually for, because we speak so frequently about what we are against. But merely speaking against things does not a movement make! At least, not one that is grounded in joyful community, embodied connection, and deep resolve to keep fighting for what is right and good.

This year’s Abortion Care & Reproductive Health Institute will help future physicians lead with positive values that point to a better world for us all. The Institute will be an exploration of what it means to say that

hope is not a feeling, it is a discipline

in light of the very serious and harmful attacks against reproductive health, rights, and justice that we are experiencing in the US — including the egregious reversal of the constitutional protection to the right to abortion care. For as much as it is necessary to boldly step up and say “No!” to these ongoing attacks, it is equally necessary that we tell and embody a counternarrative that invites and draws people into the vital and creative work of building the world we actually dream of.

 

So, if you are a future physician who is also
a Reproductive Freedom Dreamer and Doer,
this Institute might be for you!

Read on, and apply…

The “WHO”

The AMSA Reproductive Health Project is seeking 10 medical student and 10 premedical student AMSA members (U.S. based) who are passionately interested to develop and deepen their knowledge and skills useful for the fight for reproductive freedom, and who are also interested in expanding their leadership capacity within AMSA. We are particularly extending an invitation to premed and medical student AMSA members who are AMSA Chapter Officers, and to premed and medical student AMSA members who aspire to national AMSA leadership roles.

 

The “WHAT”

A leadership training academy as much as a reproductive health institute, the multi-month program will be a deep dive opportunity to build knowledge, skills, and connections in a supportive, nurturing, and Love-centered community to help us connect with joy in the labor of collective liberation. Participants will be supported with mentoring and resources to develop a project action toolkit that will be shared with AMSA members & chapters who want to join in the movement for reproductive freedom.

The Institute program includes hands-on training, project resources and development support, facilitated connections, one-on-one mentoring and coaching, and much more! As an experiment of what togetherness can look like in a world irreversibly changed by the COVID pandemic, we’ve designed the program to include virtual, on-demand, and in-person engagement that centers practices of community care, harm reduction, repair, and healing, in acknowledgment of the vast extent of harm and trauma that people are experiencing and carrying with them.

Those selected for the Institute will receive the following financial support:

    • AMSACon2023 Registration Fee Waiver ($200)
    • Convention travel and hotel stipend ($600)
    • Project toolkit stipend ($500)

 

The “WHEN & WHERE”

The program will run January through June 2023, with virtual sessions held on the last Tuesday evening of each month (1/31, 2/28, 3/28, 4/25, 5/30 from 8:00pm – 9:00pm EST), and will culminate in gathering together in-person for AMSACon 2023 in Phoenix, AZ (June 15 – 17), with special programming and activities for Institute participants.

 

The “WHAT NEXT” 

APPLY HERE – Application Deadline – Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at 11:59pm PST

Selected applicants will be notified on a rolling basis and no later than – Tuesday, January 17, 2023

 

For more information email
Dr. Jeff Koetje (jkoetje@amsa.org) or Becky Martin (bmartin@amsa.org)
Learn more about the AMSA Reproductive Health Project
at  AMSA.org/rhp