Over the last ten years, our team has been working to bring our scholarship program forward.
Now, we are committed to offering a minimum of 60 scholarships to our doula trainings per year—and here’s everything you need to know about how it works, how to receive one and why the program even exists.
So, what is our scholarship program?
Our doula training scholarship program awards free or discounted tuition to birth workers who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of color, trans, nonbinary, two-spirit and gender-non-conforming.
1.) Our scholarship exists because doula work has an undeniable cultural context.
We believe doula work must acknowledge the communities that need reproductive justice most. And we know that birthing people have better outcomes when they share cultural similarities with their support team, like doulas, midwives and other reproductive health workers.
We’re hoping that through this scholarship, we’ll make changes in representation for reproductive health workers—as well as provide better access to support for birthing people in all communities.
2.) The program has become possible, because we allocate 25% of every DTI doula training fee toward funding scholarships.
Today, 25% of all full paying DTI members’ tuition feeds into scholarship funds. The majority of proceeds from our shop now benefit the scholarship fund, too!
3.) You can apply for the scholarship program if you identify as Black, Indigenous or a person of color—regardless of financial status.
We’re committed to lowering disparities in maternal and infant health, and the devastating reality is that race is still a determining factor on whether one has a healthy birth and baby in this country and worldwide. In order to change the landscape of birth for every doula and every person, we work to provide scholarships for BIPOC doulas.
4.) You can also apply if you identify as queer, trans, nonbinary, two-spirit or gender-non-conforming.
We are also committed to inclusivity. Birthing people and birth workers can be women, men, trans, non-binary, or any other gender. We know that everyone who gives birth deserves quality care, but issues of gender and identity are still received with much confusion and discrimination within the birth culture. So beyond acknowledging the uniqueness of the human experience, we want to open doors. That’s why we offer scholarships for trans, two spirited and non binary birth workers, too.
5.) We’ve invested in new technology to make applying for the scholarship easier.
Thanks to some investments in our infrastructure and our new Scholarship Coordinator, Ashley Gothard, we can now accept applications for the scholarship year-round!
With the new system, you can apply for either scholarship or both at once—you can also save your application and return to it as needed. In your application, dive deep. Why does DTI align with your journey through reproductive health? Why are you called to doula work?
You’ll then hear from our team within a few weeks about whether or not we can award your application for discounted or waived tuition.