The History of the Idaho Partners Program

Partners in Policymaking is an innovative, competency based leadership training program for adults with developmental disabilities and parents of young children with disabilities. The program was designed and created in 1987 by Colleen Wieck, Ph.D., Director of the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, and Ed Skarnulis, Ph.D., of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The purpose of the program is twofold: To teach best practices in disability, and to teach the competencies of influencing and communication.

In 1997, the Idaho Council on Developmental Disabilities began sponsoring Partners in Policymaking. The program is designed to provide information, training, resources, and skill building to self-advocates and parents of children with disabilities to enable them to achieve a quality of life that most citizens are afforded.

Since 1987, Partners programs have been implemented in 46 states funded by the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act. More than 8,600 Partners graduates are part of a growing national network of community leaders working to achieve systems change at the local, state, and federal levels of government.