Last year, Inclusion International asked groups of people with intellectual disabilities in the United Kingdom to tell us about a project they want to do in their community.

In memory of Liz Haverda, her family and friends raised money to create the Liz Haverda Memorial Fund, which would give funding to a group of people with intellectual disabilities to do work that was important to them.

After hearing from groups around the United Kingdom about the work they wanted to do, with Liz’s fund we were able to give a small grant to a group of people with intellectual disabilities working with Pyramid, an inclusive arts group in Leeds.

This picture is of group members Liam, Martin, Ella, and Oliver (not pictured – Danielle), with their supporters Nicky, Wendy, and Zoe and some of their interviewees. This photo was taken at their screening event.

The group at Pyramid, made up of 5 people with intellectual disabilities and their supporters, planned to create a video about inclusive employment.

The group worked on their short film over 8 months.

They planned the video from start to finish. The group started by making decisions about what questions they wanted to ask and answer in the video, and planned who to interview.

The group started planning what should be in their video in their second meeting, where they wrote down their ideas of what questions should be in the video, and talked about what their answers would be.

Throughout the year, the group met regularly to plan the video and to start filming.

Through it all we just talked and went through and captured our ideas. We came up initially with a very long list of everywhere we wanted to film, which parts. We had to slim down and contact them. Having planning meetings helped a lot – we could have just met and have 2 planning meetings, but we tried to always meet monthly, whether that was out filming or at our offices.

Liam, Pyramid Group Member

The group was using inclusive and accessible ways of working while they made their video, and they made sure to do the same with their interviews.

As part of the film, they spoke to employers and people with intellectual disabilities who were in work, and they wanted to make sure the process of doing the interviews was accessible too.

We would prepare beforehand and send out any questions we had for people in advance. We know ourselves having disabilities that helped us, so we thought of it that way if that would help us surely it will help other people too.

Liam, Pyramid Group Member

On April 24, the group hosted a film screening at the Leeds Industrial Museum to launch their video.

Their hope is that this video will be the first step to tackle some of the barriers to employment that people with intellectual disabilities face in Leeds and around the United Kingdom.

The video not just for us, it is for all people. There are other people with disabilities who also want to think about getting jobs. We need a lot of help, everyone needs to be trying.

Oliver, Pyramid Group Member

Inclusion International is proud to support this work, in memory of our colleague Liz Haverda. Access to employment and self-advocacy were close to Liz’s heart, and we are happy to be able to honour her legacy through this work with Pyramid.

Pyramid’s short film is now available to watch online:

Pyramid’s Short Film on Inclusive Employment in Leeds