Project title:
Pécs Városi Civil Keret 2023-2/Pécs City Civil Financial Framework 2023-2

Project duration:
16.10.2023.- 31.12.2023.

Supporter:
Local Government of Pécs

Project summary:
Expansion of our Barrier-free Pécs Database with additional locations.
Our important goal is to make Pécs exemplary. There are few social problem areas that can connect as many target groups as accessibility.
Accessible venues and programs are a basic necessity for people with disabilities. Without it, they cannot go out, study, work, play sports, travel, have fun, run errands. That is, to live as an equal citizen in society. For the elderly and parents with strollers, accessible spaces are equally important. It is a great help for those with temporary injuries, pulling suitcases and shopping bags. And everyone is much more comfortable in an accessible environment! 

There is no list or map of accessible locations in Hungary. For people with disabilities, however, predictability is essential.
Therefore, in 2018, our association was the only one in the country to create a free Pécs city database of accessible locations in and around Pécs. In recent years, we have developed this from small grants, mostly from our own resources, into a professional one.
The aim is to provide urban populations with detailed and reliable information on accessible locations. Information is available in 12 categories, free of charge, in Hungarian and English, illustrated with many own photos, map display and contact information.
It also aims to develop barrier-free tourism in Hungary, to attract and inform tourists visiting Pécs (this is why it is also available in English). Since then, there has been no similar urban barrier-free database in the country.
The Barrier-free Pécs Database is available free of charge on our website in Hungarian and English: https://peoplefirst.hu/en/barrier-free-pecs/

Goal:
The Barrier-free Pécs Database is unique in Hungary and has made the city of Pécs exemplary. Countless organizations in the country are contacting us for professional support and partnership in this matter. This existing result is constantly strengthened as the database expands. 

Maintaining the database is part of city marketing. It makes Pécs one of the citadels of barrier-free tourism in Hungary, and its tourism marketing power is significant. 

Strengthening existing cooperation with City Hall.  

Based on our measurements and domestic and international feedback, the citizens of Pécs and visitors feel a serious need for the Barrier-free Pécs Database and are happy to use it.

 The social sensitization effect of the database is extremely important for both disabled and able-bodied society!  Therefore, the Barrier-free Pécs Database and the Hidden City Tor-Tour are closely complementary activities.

Target groups:
Our basic target group is people with disabilities. We do not focus on one group, since the membership of our association is also made up of people with all types of disabilities. Thanks to this, we have sufficient professional experience for the activity.  

Our wider target group is the entire urban population and visitors. Everyone who needs accessibility or is more comfortable.

How does the project work?
From mid-October 2023, the establishment of an exploratory team consisting of professionally prepared participants with disabilities. Holding preparatory training in the community space of the association (BeFogadó-Pepita).
Create a detailed schedule and task plan.
During October-November 2023, IT development and testing
From mid-October to early December 2023, new accessible locations in Pécs will be explored and existing locations updated in parallel. Professional explorations in teams of 3 people (limited mobility, visually impaired, assisting). Then they are processed and inserted into the database in Hungarian and English (description, data, photo documentation, map display, commenting option. Additional online marketing activities). 
Evaluation team meeting in mid-December 2023. Define future tasks and further funding opportunities. 

Results and impact of the project:
Training of the professional team. It is carried out by people with disabilities who have the best knowledge of their field. They receive continuous professional trainings. For them, this is a significant social integration opportunity: new knowledge, useful activity, earning money, learning, inclusion, sensitization, community building. 

Exploring new locations and integrating them into the Barrier-freee Pécs Database. During the very short funded project period, we fully explore 4 new locations from the grant and upload them to the database in Hungarian and English.  

IT development. Convert the entire database and web page to a newer and more reliable system and update the associated code. Software development and testing. 

 Update existing information in the database. An accessible database is worthless if your information is not up-to-date! This is not covered by the support received, so we try to solve it from our own resources, free of charge, because it has to take place continuously.  

Project sustainability:
In cooperation with the city, our database is part of the https://pecs.hu/en/ website.

Maintaining the database should be part of city marketing. Therefore, the already established cooperation with the Pécs City Hall must be expanded and strengthened. This would also require constant financial participation from the city, in which we are trying to achieve cooperation. 

Project title:
!ndeed
Comparison of approaches to independent living for and by people with disabilities in Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, and Germany. 

Project period:
01.10. 2023. – 31.03.2025.

Supporter:
Erasmus+
KA210-ADU – Small-scale partnerships in adult education 

Partner organisations:
VSBI, Verein zur sozialen und beruflichen Integration e.V. – GERMANY
People First Közhasznú Egyesület, Pécs – HUNGARY
Fondaziona Luigi Clerici – ITALY
Nadácia Krajina harmónie – SLOVAKIA 

Project summary:
Exchange of knowledge and experience between four partner organisations working on disability and independent living and providing services in Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Germany.
Through partner organisations, people with disabilities and professionals can learn about the best practices and knowledge of disability, social inclusion, self-determination and independent living in these four countries. As active participants, people with disabilities themselves participate in the project on an equal footing with their own experiences, needs, good and bad experiences, and the necessary evelopment ideas – as they are the best experts in their field. 

This international exchange of experience will enable the participating partners to initiate the creation of a European network on disability and independent living, which will allow the development of comprehensive concepts at European level in the future. 

The project addresses the three main objectives of the European Disability Strategy 2021-2030: 

• Promoting the transition from institutional to community-based care    
• Promoting labour market participation    
• Promoting education and lifelong learning 

The results are collected by the project in a publicly accessible online format, which includes identified approaches, information on methods, and stories told by people with disabilities. 

The partners will establish guidance on how to support the creation of conversations/discussions about disability and independent living and how to treat different participants as equals. 

Target groups:
people with disabilities, 
self-advocates who are interested in the topic,
employees of organizations that work with people with disabilities 

The main task of People First Association as a Hungarian partner in the project is:
People First will be responsible for dissemination. Develops a communication strategy, creates project messages, develops stakeholders analysis, plans the the project communication. 
It is also important to ensure that the target groups of the project are reached and involved. 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Read the current news of the project by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Project title:
Walk in Our Shoes – Inclusive city adventure
Social Development, promoting an inclusive mindset in society and addressing protection and empowerment of minorities

Project period:
20.09.2023–10.02.2025 

Supporter:
The International Visegrad Fund: https://www.visegradfund.org/

Partner organisations:
People First Public Benefit Association, HUNGARY (https://peoplefirst.hu/en/)
European Youth Centre Břeclav z. s., CZECHIA (https://eycb.eu/en/)
SOWELO Foundation, POLAND  (https://sowelo.net.pl/) 

Project summary:
Spreading social sensitization in countries where democracy and human rights need to be strengthened. As a good practice, we share an innovative solution with our partners to spread the importance of accessibility.  

Accessibility and barrier-free tourism needs to be strongly promoted in the V4 countries (Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary). However, the receptivity is there in the V4 countries, the precedents are also there (accessibility efforts, laws, the society is receptive), so there is something to build on.
Lack of accessibility currently makes life difficult for many social groups. There is hardly a topic where the target group is so broad: not only disabled people are affected, but also the elderly, families with small children, people with temporary disabilities and everyone who wants to live more comfortably without barriers.
Accessibility is a problem at European level, but it is a definite deficiency in the former Eastern European countries (including V4). The kind of a playful, cheerful, self-experience-based form of social sensitization that our project offers as the best practice is much more effective. Society can benefit from being able to approach a social problem as an own experience. 

We want to create a network where we can share our experiences. We have a special, proven, good practice, and we would like to disseminate it within the framework of this project.. People First Public Benefit Association therefore offers our Hidden City TorTour as its best practice in this project.
https://peoplefirst.hu/en/blog-post/rejtett-varos-tor-tour-a/
In addition to the implementation in partner countries, we can also see what further development opportunities exist in our Hidden City project.  

Within accessibility, barrier-free tourism is also a major area to be developed in the V4 countries. Tourism operators have not realised that barrier-free tourism itself is an excellent business opportunity that they should take advantage of.  Therefore, another goal of the project is to promote and develop barrier-free tourism, also in an innovative and cheerful way. Our aim is not to put pressure on tourism actors (neither tourists nor tourism service providers), but to show the need and good side of accessibility. 

People can only understand the problem if they can feel it.
This means that we need to make people feel and understand that social inclusion is everyone’s business. Society is enriched with each active member. Accessibility is the core element of independent living.  

We noticed that people are happy to help. However, there is an inconceivable lack of information in society about accessibility and the needs of disadvantaged groups. Legislation and regulations on the need for accessibility mean a lot. But because they are mandatory, and because there is insufficient control over their enforcement, they are not fully implemented. 

There is no similar initiative in Hungary, this is a special, unique project. It is also completely unique in Poland and Czechia.  Participants of these Hiddes City Tor-Tour walks will most certainly be accessibility activists with a powerful multiplier effect!  

Important added elements of the project:
The walks are guided by people with disabilities, for them this is a job and learn opportunity!
Walks have to be paid for, so this is an income possibility for the NGO.
It is an excellent possibility to build professional relationships with tourist providers, with other local actors and participants. 

Target groups:
Residents of partner cities
Tourists from partner cities
Multipliers 

Goal:
The main goal is to provide our Hidden City Tor-Tour project within the framework of this project as the best practice that we would like to spread. 

How does the project work?
The People First Association develops training materials on the methodology of the Hidden City Tor-Tour. Than People First provides online training for partners on how to create their own Hidden City Tor-Tour in their country. It is up to the partnerswhether they adopt our method based on what they have learned in this project or add their own ideas too.
After the partners develop their own projects in Czechia and Poland, we proceed to piloting, i.e. we test them together. 

Sustainability of the project:
We will create a network with partners, which can be expanded to other countries later.  We organize an online closing conference on topics such as: barrier-free tourism, results and sustainability, building a wider network, involving new partners, new innovation opportunities, involvement of tourism professionals, publicity.

Follow the progress of the project here, or on the partners’ Web and Facebook pages.

Take a look at our Hidden City Tor-Tour with PécsTV:
Youtube People First

Project title:
Soul Mate
Mental care at work for people with disabilities 

Project period:
01.11.2022 – 31.10.2025   

Supporter:
Erasmus+
KA220-ADU – Cooperation partnerships in adult education 

Partner organisations:
KOPF, HAND und FUSS gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Bildung mbH, GERMANY
People First Public Benefit Association, HUNGARY
SATIS, ITALY
Уърк Уит Ийз EOOD, BULGARIA
VSBI Verein zur sozialen und beruflichen Integration e.V., GERMANY 

Project summary in a nutshell:
People with disabilities remain one of the most disadvantaged groups in terms of employment and mental health.
Soul Mate addresses both issues combined by improving people with disabilities ́ opportunities to promote mental health and consolidate their ability to work or be an entrepreneur, thereby creating a prerequisite for a self-determined life.
Since there a no service specifically tailored to their needs we want to close this gap in the mental health care available to this target group. 

Soul Mate will provide new knowledge and concrete assistance on the topic of mental health at work for people with disabilities. This cost-free and easily accessible support service will contribute to improving their living and working situation.  

Aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Soul Mate promotes inclusion and diversity in education and work  

By combining each other’s expertise and skills partners will develop: 
-a guidebook for the e-learning and network software and contents
-barrier-free e-learning mental health training programmes for employees, self-employed or employers with disabilities
-a transnational virtual network for experience & knowledge 

 A little more details about the project:
Soul Mate enables inclusion and diversity in education by providing a barrier-free learning environment on the one hand and addressing the issue of mental health in the workplace with a special focus on people with different starting points on the other.  

It is clear that people with disabilities are still predominantly excluded from the digital world, which has a huge impact on the social and economic inclusion of people with disabilities in our society. 

Mental ill health – which includes psychological problems and stress – is an important issue in all EU member states, as it represents a major burden for individuals, society and the economy.Diagnoses of depression and burnout have risen sharply in recent years. Every year, more than one third of the entire EU population suffers from mental disorders. 

Our project combines both issues and addresses them by improving their opportunities to promote mental health and help consolidate their ability to work or be an entrepreneur. 

Of course, people with disabilities are just as, if not more, affected by mental ill health. Because they embody two socially still stigmatized characteristics – disability and mental illness – they are at higher risk of stigma and discrimination, which may discourage them from seeking support. 

Since people spend at least one-third of their lives at work,  it can be an ideal environment for mental health promotion and preventive measures. However, there are no services specifically tailored to the needs of workers with disabilities.The project aims to fill this gap by providing a workplace mental health training program for employees, self-employed individuals, or employers with disabilities. 

In the long term the projects objectives are:  
– to consolidate the target groups participation in the working life and reduce the risk of deterioration or illness, thus contributing to social inclusion and safeguarding the right to a self-determined life.
– to eliminate factors at work that threaten mental health by maintaining awareness and ongoing exchange about the topic.  

Target group:
– Working people with disabilities who are mentally ill. especially want to target people who do not have access to certain mental health care services because they are not available in easy-to-understand language, sign language, with subtitles or audio description. Our target population is not required to have a medical diagnosis attesting to their need for mental health support.  
– Self-employed individuals with disabilities who are mentally ill
– Employers who employ people with disabilities
– Medical environment
– Multipliers such as disability representatives, business associations, etc., 

The main task of the People First Association as a Hungarian partner in the project:
People First takes on the task of including the perspectives of people with disabilities from the beginning. This is important because the demand “Not about us without us” is a key principle in developing inclusive outcomes.

The integration of the peer perspective is discussed in the guidebook, but also in the tutorials. People First will be responsible for creating the digital tutorials, with the various “sub-tasks” shared among all partners.