This year, we experienced growth, change and discomfort at DTI. We were met with unprecedented changes to the birth world and the health communities we are part of due to the global pandemic. We had to change our curriculum and move toward a completely digital model for our trainings, too.
You likely experienced much of the same. As part of our annual commitment to healthy reflection, we want to celebrate some of the things you helped make possible through DTI in 2020. We want to thank our community, our team, our doula trainees and educators and our collaborators for continuing to work with us online—against all odds.
Here are some of the things we accomplished together:
1.) Our educators trained 385 doulas and reproductive health advocates in 2020.
This is the largest number of doulas we have ever trained—so this growth was followed by plenty of changes within our business, too. We transitioned to an entirely new digital learning platform, and we began training a new team of educators.
We also hired on new team members to manage DTI’s programs. Our founders, Tara Brooke and Gina Giordano, will also be stepping down from their day-to-day leadership roles to focus on the organization’s growth and center their efforts on our nonprofit arm, Born Into This.
2.) With your support, we awarded 62 doula training scholarship to BIPOC and LGBTQ+ reproductive health advocates.
25% of every training registration at DTI is dedicated to our scholarship program. So, at the beginning of the pandemic, we were unsure as to whether or not we’d be able to continue our scholarship program this year. Thankfully, by the summer, we were able to bring the program entirely back online and fulfill our commitment to awarding at least 60 scholarships per year.
We also determined that the program is in for a major overhaul and we have brought on a new scholarship coordinator, Ashley Gothard, to lead that effort.
3.) We donated $17,650 to grassroots orgs and funds for reproductive justice.
We believe that acknowledging the privileges and injustices present in reproductive health is an important part of doula work. This year, our team was determined to step up our internal and external commitment to reproductive justice, collaborative growth and anti-racist frameworks. We decided to donate our time, energy and attention toward supporting midwifery funds, birth centers and grassroots organizations committed to combating racial disparities within birth and maternal health.
Thank you for being part of Doula Trainings International in 2020.
We know it was a difficult year, and your input has meant a lot to us. If you are curious about our plans for 2021, you can view our training schedule here, or shoot us a note at hello@wearedti.com.