Today was my first day of Partners in Policymaking. And the first thing I learned...all positive change in the arena of children’s rights has been made by moms. Yep, the main force to be reckoned with is a bunch of organized and angry moms! As one of our speakers put it, the “tenacity and grace” of moms goes much farther than all the knowledge and intellect of experts and politicians. I agree...and I like the image...tenacity and grace.

There are 35 of us in the class from all over Georgia; three self-advocates and the rest are parents of children with disabilities...all kinds of disabilities. There is one other adoptive mom in the crowd; she has both adoptive and biological children with physical disabilities. There are several whose children have autistic spectrum disorders; this seems to be the biggest shared disability of the group. This is likely because it is the biggest developmental disability going.

We’re a lively group, full of so much passion. One thing that most have in common is A LOT of problems with school issues. So, apparently lots of children with disabilities aren’t getting what they need when it comes to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE).

We’re together for the next nine months, meeting monthly to hear speakers, learn more about each other and work on our projects. In January we will do a mock legislative session. We will invite legislators (real ones) to come and then each one of us will give mock testimony. The purpose is to teach us how to speak in front of congressional committees and advocate on behalf of legislative change.

We have to monitor how many times we advocate – every letter, email or phone call we make on behalf of an issue, our children or other people. Every meeting we attend, every conference, every presentation we make, every media contact.

Tonight, after arriving back at the hotel after dinner, our zany bunch decided to put our newly-learned advocacy skills to use. We discovered that the hotel did not have a wheelchair accessible shuttle. Several of the parents have wheelchair-bound kids, so we took the opportunity to tell the night manager our concerns. She told us we needed to talk with the manager. So we did...each individually leaving messages for him about our concern. Since we meet at this hotel for the next nine months, we’ll get to see if our advocacy results in any change.

And I’ll keep you posted on all we learn. But if you are the parent of a disabled child and wanting to prepare yourself for the advocacy in your future...check out Partners in Policymaking in your state (there are over 30 states involved).