[music]
[male voice] They come one by one,
all seeking answers to puzzling questions
and ways of coping with the uncertainties
and challenges that life can bring.
Almost universally, they leave with new optimism
and new tools to help them deal with the issues
of concern. They are people with intellectual
and developmental disabilities
or the parents of children with disabilities
and most have felt the frustration and pain
of struggling to deal with the system.
These individuals have come to Partners
in Policymaking and their needs
and circumstances vary.
But all have sought ways to find new answers
and to bring about change.
They learn how to make their voices heard
to play a role in policy development.
Wanda Mills has lived with difficult disabilities
for much of her life, but persevered
and went on to employment
with the tax department in the town of Sylva
When her parents passed on, she moved to
her own residence, cooks all her own meals
and maintains the household.
She credits the Partners program
with helping her to interact in the community.
It has changed my life completely.
I have always wanted to be a public speaker.
and that was a crazy idea,
but Partners helped me realize that I could
be a public speaker.
That has always been a life dream of mine.
From my perspective, it is to help
parents of children with disabilities
to not put their child in a box,
but let them be all they can be,
however little though that may be.
That is so important.
[male voice] Wanda is increasingly speaking out
on issues of concern to people with disabilities
addressing groups in a number of North Carolina
communities. The Partners program director,
Deborah Whitfield, an attorney who herself
is a graduate of the program in Texas understands
the growth process and now keeps the proceedings
on track in North Carolina.
There are some challenges, people who believe, that
you know they can't do it because many of them
haven't left their own communities.
Many have never gotten on public transportation.
Many have not even lived in a hotel room.
So when you see those individuals
who come to this training for the first time,
get that experience and soar
it is a delight to be a part of that process.
[male voice] The creator of the Partners advocacy
program, Dr. Colleen Wieck, of Minnesota,
said it was prompted by a specific need
and then grew from there.
The last witness at the 3-hour hearing was
a young parent from International Falls,
Minnesota. And, everyone was giving her
mixed messages about what to do to testify
in front of U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger
And, after that hearing, two of us got together
and we realized, we could teach the skill
that was missing. And, we could do this
in a systematic way, as well as
teach best practices about disability services.
And, as a result, we created this
eight weekend program that's designed to teach
both- what is best practice
in education, assistive technology, living
and employment, as well as how to communicate
with local, state and federal officials.
[narrator voice] Because the need for people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities
to advocate for themselves
is not limited by boundaries, Partners programs
are being conducted in most states
in the U.S., and a number of foreign countries.
The individual needs vary, but there are
some common themes.
The desire for full inclusion often rises to the top.
I think that the tips and the tools that you learn
about advocating for yourself or for others
are great. You can use them for any disability
Being a blind person, I come against
things all the time as far as
what I can and can't do because
I'm blind. They don't know what I can and can't do
because they don't want to give you a chance.
You have to speak up for yourself,
so I learned to be more assertive.
speak up for myself and sell myself. I have
to do that.
[narrator voice] While many graduates
focus on issues of housing
and employment, Doug Hedrick
has zeroed in on respect, campaigning
for the use of language that sees individuals
with disabilities as people. The father of a son
with autism, Hedrick went before the board of his
local school district and got action.
The eight month program gives you a lot of tools in
your toolbelt, and I'm just starting to use
a few of them.
Some of the ones that I've used is being able to
speak to school boards and facilitating
a People First language policy.
What Partners asked me to do, in the course, was
to change or create policies, and I saw
an opportunity with my school board in Burke
County to say, let's use a People First
language policy let's adopt that.
And the interesting thing is ...
and this is what I've learned in Partners.
When you explain this to people.
people generally do the right thing.
People want to facilitate change
if it's the right thing, and using a People First
language policy is just a very good thing.
And they adopted this policy last year,
and they're using it today.
[male narrator] Others have joined Hedrick
as advocates of people first language
a movement that has been supported
and pressed by the North Carolina
Council on Developmental Disabilities
Together with other Partners graduates, Hedrick
has helped push for People First language
with webinars, telling supporters how they can
carry the message to their own communities.
They are demonstrating leadership in their
communities, as many Partners graduates do.
Debra Wilson completed the program
and later was named a member of the
North Carolina Council
on Developmental Disabilities. She came to
Partners when she was struggling to find ways
of opening up workable education pathways
for her daughter who has a visual impairment.
We were having difficulties with our Onslow County
school system where we live, and she was having
to travel about two hours on a weekly basis
just to be able to attend school and having
to live somewhere besides her home environment.
And, someone told me about Partners
and asked if I thought I would be interested. And I
didn't know anything about Partners at the time.
And what happened was ultimately learning
and being able to meet the people that Partners
[laughs] It's almost like they pull them out of a hat but
they're absolutely fantastic.
And those people were able to show us
not only knowledge but give us the power,
show us power that we actually had, that we
could change and make a difference to bring our
children either home, in our case,
or do what needed to be done so that
they could get education. In every situation
for us, and that's just being parents of our children
with a disability.
[male narrator] One young graduate
of the program, self-advocate David Chatterton
feels that the Partners program has been
a great experience, and helped in preparing
him for a career.
I went into Partners because I wanted to meet
new people, but also, I just kind of wanted to
make a change in my life and to kind of get
a strong sense of you know not letting people
put you down, and what not. It was
overwhelming, just because it goes deeper
into the whole disability area.
I love to educate myself. I love that others educate
me as well. So, going into Partners, you meet a lot
of people that share a lot of the same visions as you.
[male narrator] David is now looking to the future
to continue his education, pursue a career
and use his advocacy skills.
Nurturing leadership and advocacy, and providing
the voices of the future for people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities
is a primary purpose of Partners in Policymaking
Holly Riddle, the executive director of the
North Carolina Council, says it is a strong
supporter and funder of the program.
Many boards, commissions, committees, offices
are staffed or are joined by Partners in Policymaking
graduates. When people come to Partners, they
are the finest leaders that we get application from
and when they come out, they can't be beat.
It has always been the case that it is from individuals
with disabilities and families that innovations come.
When you're that close to the life of someone
or when it is your own life, you think on your feet
so many of the ideas that inform the field today
at a systems level began in someone's living room
in a classroom with an individual, or with a family
many of them Partners in Policymaking graduates.
[male narrator] There remains a challenging road
ahead for people with intellectual and developmental
disabilities, and the hope for change lies in improving
the policies and systems designed to support
and encourage these individuals and their families.
It is people, such as the graduates of the
Partners in Policymaking program who
will bring about that system change.
And after Partners, became empowered,
and knowledge is power.
And once that happened, the bitterness,
the anger- it left. And now you learn, you know
that people are people, and you learn how to deal
with every different person there is in every
situation. And those situations, they need to be
used to help benefit, not only my child
and my daughter, but they need to be used
to benefit all disabilities, all disabilities.
And everything that I can do and everything
I've learned is important so that I keep my anger
out of it, that it's not about the people
it's about situations that we need to resolve
and how we can go about doing those things,
and, there again, the more knowledge you have
the more power you have, which ultimately
can make a change, and that's what it's about.
[male narrator] Partners in Policymaking, a program
to educate and to motivate, a program of action
a program for the future.
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