My Experience as a Movement Fulfillment Intern for the Louisiana Coalition for Reproductive Freedom
By Gabrielle Schmidt
This semester, I had the incredible opportunity to work with the Louisiana Coalition for Reproductive Freedom (LCRF), a unifying body for organizations dedicated to advancing reproductive justice and health in Louisiana, as the Movement Fulfillment Intern.
During the course of my internship, I undertook a variety of responsibilities aimed at supporting LCRF’s mission. My main task was to develop an exclusive website for LCRF’s members, which served as a hub for resources, toolkits, guides, and subscription services. This involved not only website design but also the creation of these resources, as many had not yet been developed. From a 2024 Louisiana policy brief, a non-profit donor campaign guide, and a language guide for talking about reproductive justice in the media, the resources I created not only served the needs of LCRF’s members but also deepened my own perspective on the complex issues surrounding reproductive justice and health. Crafting the policy brief–which outlined key legislative proposals and provided analysis of their potential impact on reproductive rights and health in Louisiana–was especially daunting at first, as I had no prior experience with creating this type of resource, but because of this experience, it is now something I feel confident in creating, similar to many of the materials I created to populate the website.
Additionally, throughout my internship with LCRF, I delved into various aspects of coalition work apart from my primary responsibilities of website and resource creation. This included ad hoc tasks such as sourcing subscription services and CRMs that were of interest to members, digging through existing records and resources, and facilitating member outreach and collaboration, all of which reinforced the importance of adaptability and responsiveness in coalition work.
I look forward to continuing my internship with LCRF over the summer, during which member outreach and event programming will become my primary focuses. I am extremely grateful for my supervisor at LCRF, Victoria Coy, as well as Newcomb Institute, for the guidance and support I have received throughout this process.