It was a huge honor for our association on 17. April 2023.
U.S. Ambassador David Pressman also met with NGOs during his visit to Pécs. During the working lunch, the People First Association also had the opportunity to introduce themselves and briefly exchange views with the Ambassador about the possibilities of civic life.

We are very pleased that, after the Dutch Ambassador, the American Ambassador also visited Pécs to get to know the point of view of Hungarians living in Baranya. Mr. David Pressman has expressed his commitment to continue to travel extensively around the country in order to meet as many opinions as possible.

As the Ambassador said: “It was wonderful to spend time with a diverse array of local community organizations working hard to ensure Hungarians from all walks of life have access to opportunities.”

More information about the visit can be found here: David Pressman’s visit to Baranya

Since 2018, our association has been tirelessly exploring the truly barrier-free locations of Pécs and its immediate surroundings. We describe what we saw about the locations grouped into 12 categories, illustrate them with many photos, show them on a map where exactly they are located, provide contact details to get more information. All this in both Hungarian and English.

We have now introduced 85 locations to make it easier to find accessible venues for residents and visitors.

Our team works on the basis of methodology, continuously strengthened by professional trainings.

You can find all information about the database here on our website under the Barrier-free Pécs menu.

The Accessible Pécs Database is made available free of charge to those looking for accessible venues. It is also free of charge for each site to explore. However, all this, of course, costs us money. Thank you if you support our niche work, even through the ADOMÁNYOZOK (DONATE) button on our website, with as much as amount of money you want.

We closed our ARTcoWORKers international project with a very fun, very interactive conference on March 30, 2023!
In the People First Association’s “InnClusive” Community Space 70 guests were curious about the closing event on the relationship between art and disability.
Thank you for being with us!

The final international conference was preceded by a five-day evaluation training discussing the future in InnClusive. German, Dutch, Macedonian and Hungarian artists, people with disabilities, and artists with disabilities were engaged in conversation, sewing teddy bears, making shadow plays, brainstorming, looking at the city, and eating a lot (because that’s Hungary!), while a great team was formed.

Let’s keep in touch with artists and people with disabilities after the project on the ARTcoWORKers Facebook page, in the Facebook group and on the communication Platform that will be created soon!

We don’t like boring conferences.

Therefore, we are waiting for everyone for an unusual event on 30. March in Pécs, in the community space of our association.

Why is it going to be unconventional?
Because we don’t just talk, we show what we’ve done so far, providing ideas and experiences to connect art and disability.

There will be some interesting stage scenes (shadow play) inserts, and even a larger joint international production.

And the topic itself is unconventional, since it is a missing, but very important area for both sides!

We would also be very happy to hear their views from those present.

The conference is free, but registration is required!
Please be sure to provide feedback on participation at info@peoplefirst.hu email.

The language of the conference is English, with a Hungarian translation.

You may want to follow the posts of the event and the People First Association Facebook page for more details: https://www.facebook.com/PeopleFirstHun/

A képen az ARTCcoWORKers logója látható. Fekete artcoworkers felirat, melyből három pálca kapcsolódik egy női árnyalakhoz.

We have great news!
Based on the registration of the Court of Pécs, our association operates as a public benefit organization from now on.
Thus, our name has also been modified: People First Public Benefit Association – Pécs.
With this title, we strive to work for the community with even greater responsibility.

The City Civic Forum was organized by the Pécs City Hall on the evening of 25.01.2023. Our association also played a proactive role in convening this.
We were not surprised that a large number of active NGOs from Pécs gathered with the representatives of the town hall: Deputy Mayor Gábor Zag and Civil Councilor Márta Kunszt to discuss civil issues.

Among the topics covered in the civic councillor’s report were the introduction of public participation self-government in our city this year, the Civil Concept adopted last year, the civil coordinator application adopted just yesterday, and the mapping of NGOs in Pécs.

On the part of the civilians:
it arose as a demand that the Civil Forum be held every year at this time, during the period of planning the city budget.

The Civil Concept was discussed several times, and the organizations indicated their need to implement the things described together in it. So, for example, to have a Civil Fund in the city hall budget again (there will be no one this year). And the specialized working groups described there should finally be established.

It was a strong request for equal treatment of support for NGOs by city hall.

For a long time, the unbearable increase in current overhead costs in Hungary has been a topic (the town hall is trying to find a solution to support civilians).

The civil coordinator application was judged differently. On the one hand, it would have been good to decide also on this together with the civilians. On the other hand, according to several people, it may not be appropriate to single out an NGO, especially since there is a deputy mayor and a civic councillor dealing with this topic. However, city hall said they needed insider help to connect with NGOs.

For our part, we hope that in the promised sequel, the atmosphere of the Civic forums will become more cooperative. Instead of the current attack-defense-blame, acknowledging each other as real partners can create a much more forward-thinking situation and discourses.
We think that would be the right thing to do.

Our association has started a serious thing again: we are building an international People First network!

You may know that People First is an international network whose basic purpose is to support the independent living of people with disabilities.
People First can be found in so many countries around the world. Sometimes it is under a different name (e.g. Mensch Zuerst in Germany, or Speaking for Ourselves, United Together, Advocates Action in English-speaking countries), or just focusing on one target group, but the goal is the same. 

As a People First association in Hungary that has been operating for many years, we have noticed that there is no central international People First organization. We feel it would be of great benefit if we could know about each other in the world, get to know each other’s activities and create connections and collaborations.

Therefore, we, the People First Association – Pécs, in January 2023 started the work of connecting of international organizations, where we invite all the working People First of the world!

Through thorough research, we found many People First organizations around the world to whom we wrote invitation emails in English in January 2023. We’ve also created a Facebook group where People First organizations can get to know each other, keep in touch, build partnerships, even start joint projects.

If you know of People First organizations in your country, please recommend joining the Facebook group below. Thank you in advance!
We would like to point out that here only People First (or organizations with a different name, but of a similar nature) and their members can be members. We also expect an introduction from everyone, as this is the basis for building relationships.
The People First International Cooperation Facebook group is available here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1379228282882211

Yesterday, our “Double Bet” campaign came to a successful conclusion. We would like to thank our supporters gratefully for helping us achieve our goal of collecting HUF 250,000, as this was the basis for the promoters to double this amount.

In the end, 251.313 HUF was collected!

So your support amounts are worth twice as much!

In particular, we would like to thank the Emberség Erejével Alapítvány/Power of Humanity Foundation for making this application possible. In this way, we not only received money, but also found new acquaintances, friends and, hopefully, future relationships and supporters. And we’ve gained valuable experience in campaigning.

We are grateful to the Webstar Group, all of its employees, who have raised a huge amount of money for us from employee support with the values of the local community in mind. We have to quote as they say, because they say it so well: “The kind of society we live in depends on us. From me and you, from the neighbor, from the gas station attendant, from the kindergarten aunt — all of us.”

The support will be used to maintain and expand our unique Barrier-free Pécs database, especially for the finally greater financial appreciation of the work of the professional team that created it. We will provide information on the use of the grant on our website and Facebook page.

We are pleased if you also take a look at the locations listed in the Accessible Pécs database and help the readers to get the most accurate information with your comments. https://peoplefirst.hu/en/akadalymentes-pecs/

We wish you a very happy Holidays and that we can work together in the new year to make the world a better place!

We celebrated our very active year 2022 with a year-end association party. At the same time, we have inaugurated and starting to settle in the new location of our BeFogadó/InnClusive community space in the Balokány Grove, in Pepita.

We ate and drank, cheered, talked a lot, played games…. that is, we let off steam to make room for the new one in 2023.

We wish everyone equally pleasant reunions with friends during the rest of Advent, at Christmas and New Year’s Eve. And in the new year, let’s meet as much as possible at the BeFogadó/InnClusive!
(You can read more about our BeFogadó/InnClusive here: https://peoplefirst.hu/en/befogado/

We have launched an international project on a niche topic. On 13. December we held our first kick-off meeting with our German, Italian and Bulgarian partners in Berlin to discuss the tasks of starting the project.
First of all, we got to know each other, the activities of the various international organizations, their strengths, and the tasks undertaken in the project. We established a further work schedule and started working.

It will be a very exciting topic for our 3-year collaboration: the Soul Mate project will provide concrete support in preserving and strengthening mental health in the workplace for workers with disabilities. Of course, in close cooperation with employers.

We, the People First Association, basically provide the peer approach and experience in the project, and we will be the conscience of the project, constantly reminding of the principle of “Nothing about us without us”.

Here on our website you can read a little more about the Soul Mate project in the Projects menu: Soul Mate project
Follow us on Facebook, where we will keep you updated on the development of the project: https://www.facebook.com/PeopleFirstHun