Author Archives: Pataki Veronika

We are updating the accessible locations of Pécs

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Our sticker team is back at work, what does Covid matter to us! 🙂 Of course, we are only going to the locations that are accessible despite the epidemic.

Our professional team can continue its work thanks to the “Live Broadcast” community fundraising event of the Pécs Community Foundation. In other words, we have the support of the people of Pécs and who feel Pécs important.

In the first round we are updating the more than 60 locations in our Accessible Pécs database so that no one is surprised if you visit one of them. So far, however, we have only seen positive changes! Each change will be added to the database and reported on our Facebook page. Keep following us. We welcome your comments and questions!

You can find the Accessible Pécs database in English here: Barrier-free Pécs (EN)

You can read about sticker projects (and all our other projects) here: Our projects

And our Facebook page is available here: Facebook

Our ARTcoWORKers international project will start in April!

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‼️ We’ve got a great news!
Our international Erasmus+ application has won! ???
We will start in April a very exciting project with four countries in cooperation between the cultural creative industry and people with disabilities. ♿️?
Read the short description of the project hier on our website in Projects menu in English: http://peoplefirst.hu/en/blog-post/artcoworkers-erasmus-nemzetkozi-projekt/

ARTcoWORKers Erasmus+ international project

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Project title:
ARTcoWORKers
Arts and People with disabilities – cooperative digital working for inclusion during the pandemic

Project period:
01.04.2021. –  31.03.2023.

Supporter:
Erasmus+ KA2
Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices, KA227
 Partnerships for Creativity

Partner organisations:
VSBI Verein zur sozialen und beruflichen Integration e.V., GERMANY
KOPF, HAND und FUSS gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Bildung mbH, GERMANY 
People First Association, HUNGARY
Citizen’s Association for Multimedia Art Theater, Creativity and Culture SHADOWS AND CLOUDS Skopje, The Republic of North MACEDONIA
VitalPed, NETHERLANDS

Project summary in a nutshell:
The Covid epidemic has been the most shocking affair worldwide of recent times for all. In addition to its many negative results we have learned a lot from it, which are worth exploiting in the future. The most important thing is that cooperation and joint forces are needed. Another lesson is that there are certain groups of society who are affected much more severely by a crisis. They need help first of all.
The ARTcoWORKers project has already put it in its name: four countries WORKs together to help people with disabilities in similar difficult situations, using one of the most commonly understood and usable languages, the ART.
In the meantime we are sensitizing to social inclusion and showing a new way for artists who are also strongly affected in Covid.

A little more details about the project:
We want to equip people with disabilities with the necessary instruments and skills to find creative and innovative solutions against the risk of exclusion and isolation, but also against the social challenge of ensuring the inclusion of people with disabilities even in the pandemic. In particular, opportunities are sought for how the cultural and creative industries can face these social challenges and make their own contribution to overcoming the pandemic. Special consideration should also be given to creatives and artists with disabilities.
On the other hand, the cultural and creative industries were also affected by significant restrictions and lockdowns by unemployment and no incomes. Artists and cultural workers with disabilities are particularly affected, too.
Therefore we saw a need for a transnational project, which organises on one hand an exchange of experiences of people with disabilities and the arts and cultural industry from different countries. On the other hand we find the manifold resources and creativity of the stakeholder groups, which shall be manifested through cooperative training in arts and culture, how to claim for equal rights and self determination, to overcome the restrictions of the pandemic and to cooperate in a fair manner to create new business, employment and incomes. 

The project will produce four core outcomes: 

  1. The ARTcoWORKers Methodology 
  2. The ARTcoWORKers Curriculum and course for people with disabilities in the field of active citizenship and creative work 
  3. The ARTcoWORKers Performing arts – 6 shadow theater plays 
  4. The digital ARTcoWORKers Platform/Tool Box 

In the partnership are cooperating together with inclusive adult learning experts for people with disabilities, self-representation organisation of people with disabilities, pedagogical and training experts, artists and theatre union as well as a specialist in creative and inclusive coworking and virtual topics. This variety of geographic, structural and business diversity makes the consortium very competent and strong. 

The project will have the following main impacts:

  • The involved people with disabilities are empowered and skilled to use arts and theatre play for self-representation and getting equal rights during a pandemic but also in other situations of discrimination. 
  • People with disabilities will have better and equal access to adult learning opportunities especially to digital learning. 
  • The broader local, regional and national public and the political decision maker are better informed about the UN CRPD, the rights of people with disabilities in general and during pandemic and they have started to reduce the discrimination and segregation of people with disabilities in institutions and at home. 
  • The cooperation between adult training organisations and arts and culture businesses shall lead to reinforcement of creativity in non-formal and formal education. New skills and competences are created in both sectors. 
  • The involved arts, culture and creative industry will find new business and job opportunities together with people with disabilities. 
  • People with disabilities get a chance to work as artists and in the cultural sector.

The main task of the Hungarian partner (the People First Association)
is the dissemination, and the social media, plus create marketing plan and the project’s message to society.
In addition, final conference in Pécs and the transnational theatre play will be organized by People First, as well as the blended mobility training with trainees.
The dissemination activities means providing quality information to the target audience from the beginning, especially in social media.
Networking, a partnership that connects participants in the arts and culture sectors, people with disabilities, human rights organisations and the social/creative economy, is also led by People First.
We will work together with several local NGO’s active in the arts to implement the project.

You can follow the news of the project here:
WEB: https://artcoworkers.eu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Artcoworkers-104689898685507

The International Cooperation Platform is available here:
https://artcoworkers-platform.eu/

Report on the international closing conference of the project, we held in Pécs in March 2023:
PécsTV News

 

Continues exploring accessible locations

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Work has started, with the money from the online community fundraiser event “Live Broadcast” on 10 December 2020. we have started the third year of the sticker project!

This year, the now professional team undertook to revisit each of the 61 locations in our free, public, Hungarian and English-language database and to discover the positive and negative changes that have occurred. All this, as before, is recorded by category, with detailed descriptions and photos in the Barrier-free Pécs (EN) database on our website.

We also undertook to map all the hotels and larger accommodation in Pécs from an accessible point of view, as this is what we have the most questions and the greatest demand.

In the summer, we will organise a small conference where we will share good practices with organisations with similar activities, try to link existing databases in Hungary and discuss other important issues.

We’re constantly covering all this, follow us on our Facebook site!

You can read more about Sticker Project 3 here: Sticker project 3.

Sticker Project 3. – Supported by the Residents of Pécs!

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Title of the project: “Let’s make Pécs barrier-free to all!”

Supporters: the businesses and residents of Pécs; in other words, us, Pécs people. The support was collected at the “Élő Adás” (Live Broadcast) community donation event of the Pécs Community Foundation.

Duration of the project: 01.2021 – 12.2021.

About the project:

This project is the third phase of our so-called sticker project, running since 2018. The team members, who, in the meantime, have become professional, survey the barrier-free locations of Pécs and its immediate surroundings and enter them into a free database. This work is done to benefit ALL OF US: people with disabilities, young mums pushing buggies, the elderly, or those with temporary disabilities.

In the long-term, our main goal is to create an inclusive society. We would like Pécs to become a city that is equally liveable for everyone, where people pay attention to all members of society, a place where every single person is important. 

From this point of view, creating an accessible environment is beneficial to everyone not only those living with disabilities. 

Disabled members and helpers of People First Association Pécs started exploring the city in 2018 in order to find locations that are really barrier-free. These locations have been categorised and added to a free, easy-to-use database, available both in English and Hungarian. 

This job, however, is ongoing.

For one thing, there are plenty of locations to be explored. At the same time, we need to keep an eye on those that are already in the database as there have been numerous cases where a barrier-free place was simply restored to its original condition, unusable for people with disabilities. For example, recently, a barrier-free toilet has been demoted to the status of storage room. In other – more encouraging – cases, it might take some time before, say, the promised ramp arrives at a restaurant. In addition, since we provide professional advice to create accessible premises, we need to monitor their implementation. 

 It is of crucial importance to us that local residents realise accessibility is good for everyone. It makes life easier for mothers pushing buggies, people with temporary injuries, the elderly, and even those who just want to manage their way through a busy shopping centre or railway station pulling a suitcase. If given the choice, they – more precisely we – all opt for ramps and automatic doors. While clear and visible signage in lifts, at customer service desks or in theatres is very welcome by the elderly too. 

Our partners in this work are local disability and tourist organisations, the local government, various organizations involved in barrier-free tourism, as well as the media.

However, the Barrier-Free Pécs Database is only useful as long as it is widely known and up-to-date. So, click on the link below to check it out, and let your friends know about it too:  Barrier-free Pécs (EN)

The maintainer’s response to our letter on institutional closure

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With the need for completeness – and because several of you have asked for it – we publish here the last piece of our correspondence on institutional closure of our members during the Covid epidemic, the answer of the maintainer, the Baptist Charity Centre in Budapest.

We find this kind of response to our letter offering help in a variety of ways and recommending a multilateral meeting deeply saddening. We will continue help our fellow in institutions on the principles of “nothing about us without us” and “people with disabilities are the best knowers and representatives of their own affairs”. The final solution will be the response to our petition to the ombudsman in July 2020, in which we asked the ombudsman to provide precise guidance to heads of institutions on how to proceed in similar crisis situations.

You can read the history in our previous posts in the News menu. The letters can be read in Hungarian.

Fenntartói válasz

The year of Corona! A summary of 2020

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It feels more difficult to begin this report, due to coronavirus, which has messed with everything since March and caused problematic months for many of us. Still, it’s uplifting how even so the organization achieved a great deal of important tasks and took part in great experiences. Throughout this year an active group has been well forged. Our task for next year is to get more people taking part actively, finding their responsibilities which they could enjoy in the organization. Even with smaller steps for the group, but with giant leaps for mankind. 🙂

Let’s see what we have accomplished through the year of Corona?

In January all things were still bright, there may have even been a little snow, who knows yet? Anyway, we felt strongly how we love to go hiking. Here in Pécs we have loads of trails and we think it’s an excellent way to include more and more people. This is why our database Barrier-free Pécs now includes the possibility to discover barrer-free hiking trails. Take a look at all we’ve found so far: http://peoplefirst.hu/en/akadalymentes-pecs/ 

We are always pleased when we can sensitize younger people, because if they get to know and accept the difference, we have a winning case in the future. Our entry into the Esély-Híd university course is due to our member Molnár Gyöngyi and it was a pleasure for us. We have also worked with the community organizers of the Department of Cultural Studies, giving a great experience for many of us. Some students from Leőwey Klára High School worked for us as part of their mandatory 50 hour community service. Thanks to them, the Barrier-Free Pécs posters can be seen all over the city, they were the ones who put them out there. We didn’t let go of our older high school members either, we still get a lot of help from them, so we nominated them for the Volunteer of the Year award. Although they did not receive an award, Szekeres Heni won the special prize of the Volunteer of the Year “Helping volunteers” (for helpers working in the field of opportunity creation and / or volunteers with disabilities) this year!

It is still very important for us that the local civil-organizations work together, uniting their strengths and knowledge. We had several opportunities for this this year, such as attending the “Neighborhood Academy” meetings of the Pécs Community Foundation, discussions at “Chance team” tea parties organized by the CSEÖH, and discussing the local civil concept at the House of Civil Communities in July with Kunszt Márta, a civil society adviser. The two-year review of the Local Equal Opportunities Program (HEP) became topical this year. We received a request from City Hall for our association to coordinate the 16 excellent organizations that have been involved in the updating of this, with really great ideas. 

The revision of the HEP can be read here (in Hungarian): https://gov.pecs.hu/staticPage/index/strat_dokumentumok.php 

In January we also took part in an excellent tour guide training with the specialists of Tourinform, where we prepared for our barrier-free downtown tour “Hidden City”, so that we could lead those interested in a professional way (http://peoplefirst.hu/en/projects/rejtett-varos-tor-tour-a/ ). Back then, we thought we could start this tour as a permanent tourist offer this year, but then Covid came and tourism disappeared from the scene. Next year! 🙂

On the other hand, we won the ECK project with our partner organizations, the aim of which was the organization of the IV.  Barrier-free Tourism Day, and we attended its opening event in January. In June, a 5-day residential workshop was held in Orfű, the main aim was to be able to actively involve as many affected people as possible in the organization. In this way, we can adapt the festival as much as possible to the needs of people with disabilities. Did we succeed? You decide, who participated! You can also read about the Barrier-Free Tourism Day on a separate website, here:https://akadalymentesnap.hu/?lang=en 

And the event, as every year, took place in early September. We were excited throughout the year to see if it could be, yes, no, yet not, maybe, as Covid had a strong impact on that as well. This time we took on an active role in the organizing committee, including our secretary Berkes Gergő, Almádi Evelin, Biobia, Szabó Zsuzsa, Pataki Veronika, but Kerekes Hilda,Vida Ágota and others also helped a lot. It can be said that despite the threat of this year’s epidemic, they made this very successful event really innovative and exciting!

We’ll let you in on a secret, our german guests like the Barrier-free Tourism Day so much, that they’d like to organize a similar event next year – if we help them.

Moreover, due to our Peer-AcT international barrier-free tourism project, we participated in the organization of an international conference connected to the festival in September. This included a Hidden City tour for our german guests, which they also liked so much, that they’d like to try organizing a similar event back in Germany.

New members also came to join us to our great joy, as we were able to expand with more creative people Annamária, Dani, Evelin, Hilda, Ricsi, Zsuzsa and two Zolis also. We are happy to have you with us!!

Marketing. Many people still don’t understand why we do it, but we believe that our goal of making what we do visible, traceable, understandable should make sense for as many people as possible. Surely we make statements, give lectures, talk, persuade, campaign, build relationships … to reach a goal. You could hear us, you could read about us here and there and we will continue to share in the future. And also do all this in English, since we have many dear foreign partners, followers. We want you to always be with us in what we do, and even if only remotely, but you can participate in it.

In April, Vida Ágota and Molnár Gyöngyi took part in a 5-day English-language training in Germany, where they performed so well that we were able to hold peer-counselor training on accessibility for 10 other members in July and August. In the future, if there will be tourism again, they will be able to work as peer-counselors in this field in a number of ways. The association will also help them get started.

The first crash, the first wave of Covid, struck in March. 🙁

Still, with our german partner we’ve developed a project that was submitted to the German tender Aktion Mensch. If we win, next year we will create a community space where we support independent living in a variety of ways. Wish us luck!

Our “sticker-team” was able to work within the framework of the FOF2019 project this year and to develop our Barrier-Free Pécs database more and more professionally. We worked at the beginning of the year, then in the summer and even in the fall at full steam. Oláh Balázs’s web work can still only be praised, just as the current team works professionally! It is also worth knowing who they are, who discover the barrier-free locations of Pécs, coordinate, discuss up to ten times, go back many times, take photos, describe, tirelessly and enthusiastically. The team: Makay Péter, Oláh Balázs, Balogh Roland, Szekeres Henriett, Almádi Evelin, Hegedűs Szandra, Koltai Krisztina, Pataki Veronika. 

The support from FOF2019 expired in August, we did not win the FOF2020. Here came the big question: how to proceed? The Barrier-free Pécs database doesn’t worth much without updates and expansions. We came up with another solution, which was when The Community Foundation of Pécs provided us with the biggest experience and success of this year through its community fundraising evening “Live Broadcasting”. At the online event in December, the people of Pécs raised more than 1 million Forints to support the continuation of the database and the organization of a conference to discuss good practices! It was an indescribable experience to experience this event, teamwork, helpfulness, community power!

We have written many applications, it is expected that not all of them have won. However, one of the non-winners was of paramount importance to us. It was the opportunity for us to participate in the Access City Award international application, for which the City Hall asked us. Berkes Gergő and Pataki Veronika wrote several chapters of this tender, which were of outstanding importance for the accessibility of Pécs. Yes we are sorry that it did not win, but next time!

The Covid epidemic dealt the greatest blow to our peers in the institutions, who are forced to live in complete isolation during the first and then the second Covid-wave. Since it is neither humanly nor socially legal and fair, we have raised our voice against this and turned to the Ombudsman in July. Our request is only to give guidance to the leaders and maintainers of the institutions on how to behave and what solutions to apply in similar crisis situations. We know that the Ombudsman’s mills are grinding slowly, but it also surprises us that our petition in July was not answered by December. We were therefore forced to turn to both the head of the institution and the maintainer, offering our free help and ideas – but we received a nasty, incomprehensible rejection. However, it is here that the principles of “nothing about us without us” and “people with disabilities are the best knowers and representatives of their own affairs”, on which we continue to help our fellow institutions.

Of course, this year as well we had fun when we could, we met up, we had coffee, we went to concerts, we went on trips, we did video flashmobing with great mood and we wrote reviews, we did legal, tax, financial affairs with less mood… ..life continued the same when it could. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet up in person most of the time because of the virus, which we did not like. We tried to keep in touch at Zoom, but there is a lack of personal meetups, having coffees, hikes outside… 

We will make it up to ten times next year 🙂

Perseverance for all and let us keep together in our hearts.

Proposals for review of the Local Equality Programme has been accepted

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At the meeting of the General Assembly of Pécs on 8th December (online) has been accepted the document of the two-year review of the Local Equality Programme 2018-2023 (HEP).

In chapter 7, on the situation of people with disabilities 16 NGOs from Pécs worked together quickly and efficiently, doing excellent professional work. ????

The professional team will continue to meet regularly and report to each other on the fulfillment of the HEP commitment and the progress made, since we must not only describe but also implement the proposals to improve the situation of people with disabilities in Pécs.❗️

The current review file was discussed in advance by three committees and it was noted in the feedback that a very important and high-quality professional material had been compiled, and several members of the local government expressed their thanks. This is a great achievement and makes us very happy to recognize its importance.

Thank you, and based on this we look forward to working with the local gorvernment in the future.

The current HEP document can be found here, scrolling down to the Local Equality Program of the City of Pécs: https://gov.pecs.hu/staticPage/index/strat_dokumentumok.php

 

Our sticker project continues with community support!

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We collected more than one million forints yesterday on 10th December 2020, at the online fundraising event “Live Broadcast” of the Pécs Community Foundation!! From the support we will continue and expand our Accessible Pécs database, which you can find here on our website.

The Live Broadcast is an adaptation of a worldwide successful fundraising event run by The Funding Network in London. We got into this year’s event in Pécs through a competition. The People First Association may have been one of the three lucky organizations to present their project to develop Pécs. We asked the people of Pécs to support our database of realy accessible locations in Pécs and its surroundings, which is of great help not only to people with disabilities, but also to everyone.

And they supported us! 🙂

We are very grateful, it was an extraordinary experience to attend such an event, to experience the cohesiveness of Pécs,  feel the support, and help! In the meantime it has forged us, the People First team, into a real community that helps each other.

It is literally an unaffordable pleasure for us to receive material and service support in addition to the many, many donations of money! We can be happy owners of a used, excellent printer/scanner and two digital cameras. As a printing service 600 of our stickers are printed at low prices by one of our supporters, and our excellent graphic designer partner prepares 10 professional Facebook posts for us for free.

Well… what else do we say? We’re out of the word!