[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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