Partners Activities and Highlights

Thousands of Partners graduates around the world have applied what they learned in Partners in Policymaking to make their communities a better place to live, work and learn. Here are some recent examples:

Awareness of Disability-Related Issues

Michelle Reynolds, Ph.D., UMKC – Institute for Human Development, Kansas City, Missouri, wrote her dissertation on the impact of the Partners in Policymaking program on parents of children with developmental disabilities in Missouri. Partners has changed lives and changed futures, and is a proven vehicle for bringing about positive systemic change.
Issue Brief Full Dissertation
Joe Steffy is an entrepreneur in the kettle corn business. His parents, Janet and Ray Steffy, graduated from the Iowa Partners in Policymaking program. Together, they created Poppin Joes. IN 2005, the business became a sole proprietorship. Joe has always been, and always will be in charge. Since 2008, he reached an income level where he stopped collecting Supplemental Security Income.
Partners graduate, Amanda Vojak, is already applying her knowledge and communication skills to working with the media to share her story about life in northwestern Minnesota with a high concentration of poverty, the added impact on families with a child with developmental disabilities, and a pilot program designed to help individuals and families work their way out of poverty.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/06/20/poorest-counties
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KJ9Wsd17sk&feature=youtu.be
Cara Coleman is a 2009 graduate of the Virginia Partners in Policymaking program. Her Partners project was to author and publish a children's book, I Am Justice, Hear Me Roar. An announcement about the release of her book can be found at www.caraandjusticebook.com. Her bio is included and her website references Partners in Policymaking.
This Letter to the Editor appeared in the Herald-Review (Grand Rapids, Minnesota) in April 2010. Alexis and Zachary’s mom, Melissa Morand, is a recent graduate of Minnesota’s Partners in Policymaking program.

Advocacy and Systems Change

In 1993, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that children with disabilities are not entitled to a "Cadillac style education [but only] a serviceable Chevrolet style education." In 2010, Partners graduates in Delaware were successful in getting legislation enacted that addresses the fundamental issue of fairness, and ensures that students with disabilities have the same right to learn and fulfill their potential as students without disabilities.
A young Partners graduate in Delaware is using her leadership skills to urge state legislators to fund jobs programs for people with developmental disabilities. Her brother, who has Down Syndrome, would "like to learn a little independence."
Tina Perrault is a graduate of the Alabama Partners in Policymaking program. She wanted to pass along some of her knowledge and skills about the state legislative process to her son, Bobby, and so arranged for him to serve as a page for Alabama State Senator Bradley Byrne.
Kevin Webb is successfully self-employed. He was recently selected to represent Kentucky in a February Beneficiary Summit hosted by the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel. (Glasgow KY Daily Times, 1/03/07, pdf)
MN Dept of Admin: Partners in PolicymakingSM Online Learning Program Receives 2007 Digital Government Achievement Award.
The Partners in Policymaking Online Courses have received a 2007 Best of Web Digital Government Achievement Award.
A Minnesota Partners graduate testified before the United States Department of Health and Human Services Bipartisan Commission on Medicaid in May 2006 about the need for Medicaid funded services. Her testimony (pdf) is an example of how to present your personal story, the benefits of available services, and how and where improvements can be made.
A Partners in Policymaking graduate from Texas demonstrates the power of grassroots organizing.

Graduate Activities and Programs

Oklahoma has offered the Partners in Policymaking leadership training program since 1995. In the past 15 years, many Oklahoma Partners graduates have used their personal leadership skills in myriad ways, serving on Boards, Councils and Commissions; promoting and advancing public policies that reflect best practices in the field of developmental disabilities; and working first hand with people with developmental disabilities and their families, and service providers in the areas of education, employment, and health care. Their contributions are highlighted in this newsletter published in February 2010.
The Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (pdf) celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2006 with a reception at the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery.
A North Dakota Partners in Policymaking graduate (pdf) shares reflections about the program and her class (May, 2006).

Community Inclusion and Self-Advocacy

Ellen Coulston, a Delaware Partners graduate, is helping to make sure that students with disabilities are equipped with the self advocacy skills and positive attitudes to achieve their personal life goals.
Toni Franklin, Executive Director of United Cerebral Palsy in West Alabama and a Partners graduate, was instrumental in assuring that the design of a new park and playground that will be built in Northport, Alabama incorporates accessible features.
In 2006, the Vanderbuilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development conducted a survey of the siblings of adults with disabilities. A total of 1,300 individuals from all 50 states and Washington DC responded to the survey. A report on the preliminary findings (pdf) is available for review. Introduction (pdf). Preliminary Findings (pdf).
From Partners in Policymaking of Alabama, on behalf of Terry Family – A Halloween Treat (Acrobat pdf)
More than 15 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, physical and functional barriers to full accessibility still exist in schools for students with disabilities. This article (pdf) includes suggestions for removing those barriers and more effectively providing services to students with disabilities.
This Handbook (pdf), created in 2005, provides guidelines to help assure that self advocates can participate in meeting discussions and contribute in meaningful ways by expressing their own points of view.
The Highland Friendship Club was created in May 2002 to provide a meaningful way for high school students and young adults with and without disabilities to develop friendships while fully participating in community programs and activities. In just eight years, the Club has become well-established, gained broad community support and funding, and has its own web site [www.highlandfriendshipclub.org]. Click here for an article on the Highland Friendship Club (Acrobat pdf).

Personal Stories

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation® Honors Delaware Partners Graduate Deb Jastrebski With a 2011 Community Health Leaders Award: Determined to help her son work through his fear of seeing doctors, Delaware Partners graduate Deb Jastrebski's approach led to Practice Without Pressure, which she founded to help people with special needs learn skills to handle routine dental exams, blood draws, women's health exams, and nail and hair care. Today the organization works with hundreds of individuals, families, and providers.
Lena Winslow, a 2011 Virginia Partners graduate, wanted to share not only her Partners experience and the benefits she received from the program, but how important it is for parents to have this information as early as possible when they first come to know of their child's disability, what a difference it can make in everyone's life.
Lisa is a Minnesota Partners graduate. She attributes the significant changes in her personal life, and her educational and career goals to the Partners in Policymaking program. Lisa will graduate from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in June 2011. Read "Borucki Vukelich Selected as 2010-2011 Policy Fellow".
This personal story describes the realities of proposed budget cuts on people already living in poverty.
Partners in Policymaking graduates often remain connected and establish strong networks, long-term partnerships and friendships. This “Motley Crew of Alabama Partners” graduates recently made a trip to Graceland. Jayne Chase, the Alabama Partners coordinator, shared a bit of their Graceland experience.
Podcast: In the summer of 2007 Patrick Connally, president of DREES (Disability Rights, Enforcement, Education, Services), a nonprofit organization in San Rafael, California, conducted interviews with four individuals influenced by Partners.
Nearly 200 individuals have graduated from the Partners in Policymaking program in Delaware. This article, from DelAware, the newsletter of the Delaware Council on Developmental Disabilities and the Center for Disabilities Studies, includes a brief overview of the Partners program and testimonials from recent graduates.
The power of personal stories is conveyed in the poems written by participants in the 2005 Kansas Partners in Policymaking program. Dan Wilkins, The Nth Degree, presented a session on advocacy skills, and how stories can change perceptions and transform the way people think about others.

International Activities and Recognition

Partners Graduate in the United Kingdom Assumes Judgeship: Jeanette Pearson, a Partners graduate in the United Kingdom, will soon begin training to serve as a Magistrate, a lower court judge. She hopes to use the knowledge she gained through the Partners program to be reasonable, fair, and just in the decisions she will be making. She will assume this position by June 2007.
Ivan Lewis, Member of Parliament, spoke in the House of Commons on January 23, 2007 about inclusion and children with disabilities, and references the Partners in Policymaking program. A transcript of his remarks is included. This video at this link requires Windows Media Player (GCDD site).
Liz Barraclough coordinates the Partners in Policymaking program in the Northeast Region of the United Kingdom (Acrobat pdf). She has received the 2006 Hartlepool Local Hero Award in recognition of her involvement and leadership in a wide range of community activities including her role as a Partners coordinator.

Partners Resources

A Working List of Resources for Partners – The Resources page has been updated and expanded to provide more information on web sites, publications, documents, videotapes, evaluation reports and the ListServ for Partners graduates.
John Johnson, Ph.D., San Diego State University, has completed a research study (pdf) on the long term effectiveness of the Partners in Policymaking program in achieving greater independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion for Partners participants and graduates; and demonstrating system benefits at five different levels. (Text only version)
Partners in Policymaking State Coordinator List.
Partners in Policymaking Replication Package.
Stories of Leadership Book.
The presentation "With an Eye to the Past" is available on the Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities site celebrating the contributions Minnesotans have made to improve the care and quality of life of thousands of Minnesotans with developmental disabilities.