My name is Aliyah and I am currently a senior studying Public Health. This semester, I work at LIFT Louisiana as a policy intern.
Working at LIFT Louisiana has already been such a rewarding experience. I am so lucky that my supervisor, and LIFT’s founder, Michelle, is so passionate about reproductive health and has a strong presence in the New Orleans activist community. From day one, Michelle gave me strong, reasonable, detailed and ambitious goals for my semester as an intern. I can’t wait to see all of my progress I make with LIFT this semester!
As a policy intern, I am responsible for tracking reproductive health legislation in Louisiana, developing policy fact sheets, and monitoring current events relating to public health (specifically events that impact women, children, and families. Additionally, I am working on planning the Justice for Louisiana Women Advocacy Day that will take place on April 11 in Baton Rouge. This day of action will involve different organizations, students, and individuals from all across Louisiana working together to educate legislators about the state of women, children, and families in Louisiana.
I spent a while reaching out to different organizations and individuals to garner support and ask them to participate in the day of advocacy, and the response has been great! It’s so exciting to see such a diverse group of people that are passionate about creating change and taking effective action in Louisiana.
Last week, I created a fact sheet that detailed the impact of Trump’s proposed Medicaid work requirements on Louisiana women. I focused on the facts that a) most of the Medicaid enrollees in Louisiana and nationwide are already employed, so the requirement will not induce a large amount of change, and b) the people the requirement will affect are the communities that are historically marginalized and vulnerable (those with a disability, women of color, etc.).
This week I am working on another fact sheet about pregnancies and births in Louisiana and birthing disparities between white and black women. Birth and maternal health is my area of interest, and I am really enjoying gathering the information so far.
