About The Utah Parent Center

The mission of the Utah Parent Center (UPC or Center) is to help parents help their children with disabilities to live included, productive lives as members of the community. We accomplish our mission by providing accurate information, empathetic peer support, valuable training, and effective advocacy based on the concept of parents helping parents.

The Utah Parent Center is an award-winning, non-profit organization founded in 1984 by parents of children and youth with disabilities to help other parents facing similar challenges throughout Utah. For more than 23 years, the caring and competent staff of the UPC has utilized our parent-to-parent model to help many thousands of parents and to represent families in many systems-level activities. UPC staff has built collaborative networks with education, health and human service professionals, agencies, organizations, and the Center promotes change within the community through various projects and activities.

The Utah Parent Center is founded on the philosophy that parents are full partners in the decision-making process that direct their children’s care and programs and, as such, can provide significant support to other parents in similar situations.

The Utah Parent Center is the federally funded Parent Training and Information (PTI) Center for the state of Utah as funded by grant #H328M020032 from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) The Center also receives funding from other state and federal agencies as well as from private sources and donations.

The UPC offers free training, information, referral, and assistance to parents and professionals through the provision of one-on-one consultations (or calls), workshops, presentations, and displays. We also serve professionals.