Trust joins forces with Notts learning disabled and autistic theatre group
Nottinghamshire Healthcare has joined forces with Unanima, a learning disabled and autistic theatre company, to raise awareness and breakdown barriers and stigma of how people living with the conditions experience society.
The Trust's Community Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) Service, who already has links with Unanima, were inspired by their work and approached them with an idea of creating a video with people who have IDD talking about how they experience society and how we can ensure they feel accepted in their communities.
This resulted in Unanima and individuals who attend their drama group coming together to see the video come to life. The video called 'Defying Odds: Living a full life with a disability' was completely unscripted and those involved were able to share their experiences and describe in their own words what it's like to have a learning disability.
The video will be used on Nottinghamshire Healthcare's Community Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) Service web page on the Trust's website and shared widely across the services stakeholders to raise awareness. It is hoped the video will raise awareness that people who have a learning disability can still do the same things as everyone else but may just be done in a different way or take a little longer.
Roxanne Pritchard, manager for the Community IDD Service said "People with an intellectual disability can do so much more that what society believes. The aim of the video is to breakdown stigmas and to try to give people with an intellectual disability a fair starting point."
Amy Eagle, Care Group Director of Community Health and Specialist Services at Nottinghamshire Healthcare said:
"This fantastic video highlights the importance of ensuring that every voice is heard. By listening to the experiences of people with an intellectual disability, we can create more inclusive environments and build a deeper understanding of their challenges and strengths as an organisation."
Tracy Radford, Artistic Director and CEO at Unanima said:
"There has never been a more important time for learning disabled and autistic people to stake a claim in society and hopefully the circulation of this film will help to do this. The fact that the NHS is committing to raising these voices in ways like this can mark the start of some very important changes in how learning disabled and autistic people are seen and understood in our society."
A participant in the video said:
"If people had realised I could do more earlier on, I wouldn't have had to fight so hard just to get the opportunities that everyone else seems to get automatically. I hope this film helps people to see me and people like me in a better way."
Unanima is an arts development organisation, Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), and registered charity, based in Mansfield that exists to increase representation in the arts and dismantle the systemic barriers that suppress the ambitions of learning disabled and autistic people within the arts and society.
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