Partners In PolicyMaking
A project of the California ARC
For additional information contact the Area Board or ARC California
The California Collaborative was awarded a grant from the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities to replicate the internationally known leadership-training model, Partners in Policymaking created by the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities (MGCDD). Partners is an innovative, competency based leadership training program for adults with disabilities and parents of young children with developmental disabilities focused on “teaching best practices in disability, and the competencies of influencing public officials.” The PIPCC will pay for partners expenses including travel (mileage reimbursement or actual transportation cost), lodging, meals, and other related expenses. PIPCC will work with families and their local resources to collaborate and negotiate to arrange respite or childcare services. PIPCC will also work with self-advocates to provide the necessary level of facilitation and personal care support services to enable full participation in the sessions. Facilitators will fully participate in the training, and if they complete the entire program, they will also graduate from the PIPCC program.
The curriculum will be adapted to include California specific public policy developmental services information in the context of our state government, legislation, statewide organizations and associations, the advocacy community, and other important California resources. The sessions will include: (1) History of Disability Awareness, Services, and Advocacy, (2) Inclusive Education, (3) Service Coordination by Local Governments/Regional Centers, (4) Assistive Technology and Positioning, (5) Community Organizing and Advocacy, (6) State Government and State Legislation, (7) Supported and Competitive Employment, (8) Supported and Independent Living, (9) Federal Government and Federal Legislation, and (10) Parliamentary Procedure and Serving on Boards. All topics will be covered during a seven to eight weekend sessions culminating in a formal graduation involving legislators, family and important community representatives. Sessions will typically occur each month beginning on a Friday afternoon and finishing on a Saturday evening or Sunday morning. It is expected that individuals will participate in approximately 130 hours of education throughout this program.
History of Disability Awareness, Services, and Advocacy
Session 1 will focus on a historical view of disability as it relates to discrimination, segregation, and attitudes societies have held regarding disability. As has been often said, people who do not know their past are destined to repeat it. Our partners will learn about the history of the developmental disabilities on the international, national, and state levels from the 1800s to today with a look to the future. They will learn to tell the history of services, perceptions, self-advocacy and independent living movements, and the significant contributions of the parents' movement. The PIPCC will request Colleen Wick to be our opening presenter to begin the training sessions and give a solid historical foundation of the disability movement, awareness, services, and advocacy.
Inclusive Education
Session 2 will look at education from both the importance of academic development and social development for all children. Our partners will learn about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as reauthorized in 2004 and how this civil rights education act impacts people with disabilities in schools. Our partners will also learn how discuss the benefits and values of supporting inclusion and quality education for all students and be able to strategize ways to achieve inclusion and quality education for students with disabilities. The PIPCC will approach Mary Falvey California State University Los Angeles, Ben Adams Los Angeles Unified School District and Parent, and Michael Rosenberg, all well known education advocates and trainers. The PIPCC will also pursue consultation from Bobby Silverstein (former congressional staffer assigned to IDEA) and Paul Marchand national experts on education for students with disabilities.
Service Coordination
Session 3 will focus on the importance and benefits of service coordination for supporting and empowering consumers and their families in the community. California’s history of being the only state that provides lifelong service coordination with most service coordination occurring through the regional centers for people with developmental disabilities but some receive service coordination from other local government agencies and some are beginning to provide their own coordination for themselves or a family member through self determination. Partners will learn about the service coordination system, what services may be available, what to expect from a service coordinator, how to be an informed team member during the planning to improve the quality of individualized person centered and family centered service. The PIPCC will consult with WestEd trainers responsible for service coordination training, identified case manager leaders, and Carol Risley former Executive Director of the OAB and current DDS executive officer as well as a globally sought after Partners in Policymaking presenter.
Assistive Technology and Positioning
Session 4 will discuss how Assistive Technology empowers people with disabilities and changes the focus from what a person cannot do to a focus on their abilities. Everyday Assistive Technologies that many individuals take for granted include lights for people who have sight, amplifiers for audiences who have hearing, and chairs for people who do not use wheelchairs. Partners will learn about a variety of important pieces of legislation related to Assistive Technology such as the Rehabilitation Act, the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-394), and the Fair Housing Act. The will also receive a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art technologies for people with all levels of disability and why proper positioning techniques are so important including some ‘hands on’ introduction to technology.. The PIPCC will approach Martin Sweeney a parent, former project director of the assistive technology center with a Los Angeles area regional center and graduate of California Statue Universities Center on Disabilities Assistive Technology program and Michelle White, esq. executive director of Affordable Housing Services in Pasadena and previously worked for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights , and Diane Killergrew Associate Professor of Clinical Occupational Therapy and researcher from the University of Southern California Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Department.
Supported and Competitive Employment
Session 5 focuses on the world of work and employment development. We will review the current status of work and the underemployment and unemployment of people with disabilities in society and the true potential of workers with developmental disabilities. We will cover the full spectrum of supported and competitive employment for persons with disabilities from job coaches and developers to career planning, consumer run micro-enterprises and the consumer empowerment approach to supporting job development and the role public policy plays in increasing opportunities. Our leaders will be able to communicate the importance of supported, competitive employment opportunities. The PIPCC will consult with Lou Brown a nationally known expert in the field of employment of persons with disabilities. In addition, a variety of chapters of The Arc of California can consult on their implementation of special programs to support unique approaches to microenterprises, job development, and flexible career opportunities.
Supported and Independent Living
Session 6 will focus on where people live and how to best support their decisions for where and with whom they live with. The session will cover historic living arrangements to juxtapose current approaches and desires with older institutional models and discuss the relation to the 1999 Supreme Court decision on Olmstead v. L.C. & E.W. We will discuss the importance of adults and children living and fully participating in local communities in their own homes through family support and the fostering of self determined lives. Our students will be able to explain why a system of supports for the families of children with disabilities is important, why it’s important for individuals to experience changes in lifestyle across the life span, the powerful benefits of home control and the potential of home ownership, and finally the basic principles and strategies for achieving these benefits. The PIPCC will contact Catherine Blakemore, Executive Director of Protection and Advocacy and Bryon MacDonald of the World Institute on Disability to present on living and work initiatives which enhance the California State Olmstead Plan.
Community Organizing and Advocacy
Session 7 is the real “nuts and bolts” area in the training model. This is where Partners begin to develop the actual skills needed to bring about the systemic change to improve the lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families. Partners will learn how to develop strategic plans for community change initiatives, understand the legislative process for law making on both the federal and state levels, and develop methods for identifying critical federal issues. Partners will learn and practice effective techniques for advocating for needed services, drafting and delivering testimony for legislative and regulatory hearings, and how to have a productive meeting with a public official. This topic area also includes developing an understanding of State Government and State Legislation, Federal Government and Federal Legislation, and Parliamentary Procedure and Serving on Boards. Finally, partners will learn and practice methods for using the media effectively, building grassroots advocacy, and how to conduct an effective and efficient meeting for results. The PIPCC will consult with Kate Warren Joseph Kennedy Jr. Foundation Fellow and founding member of the Family Resource Centers Network, Peggy Collins, Staff Consultant to Senator Wes Chesbro, and Diane Van Maren staff Consultant to the Senate Budget Sub #1 Committee on Health & Human Services in preparation and for presentations in these critical areas. This PIPCC project is targeted exclusively for self-advocates and families and will encourage the partners to review their learnings with families and friends each time they return home from the weekend training. As evidenced in the states implementing this method, and as experienced in California from past Partners in Policymaking sessions, we anticipate a very positive systemic change in the development of public policy for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families by creating a much larger presence on public policy boards, councils, and commissions, and in the state capitol as well as our nation’s capitol. Besides the intangible product of a cadre of effective disability advocates, the project will also create a California specific curriculum easily replicable by future advocates.