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

Come with us for the Hidden City Tor-Tour on 3. December from 14.00!
We will meet at the mock-up on Széchenyi Square in Pécs, and now we will not go far. We tell you a little bit about the buildings standing in the square, and of course about their accessibility, we walk a circle, and then we look around the hilarious Christmas market in the square and see what can be achieved, eat, drink with a wheelchair, or as a blind person.

You can try all this yourself, because we will bring you a wheelchair, a white stick, “visually impairing” blurred glasses.
You haven’t done anything like that before! COME!

You can find out all about the event on Facebook:Hidden City Event

With the motto “Good for everyone”, we launched a series of campaigns as part of our “Double Bet” competition.

We know that Christmas is coming, household costs are rising, yet we try to rely on your good heart, as the purpose of our online campaign is fundraising.

What do we collect for?
Our association has been operating a city barrier-free database uniquely in the country since 2018, continuously developing it. You can access the Barrier-free Pécs database here on our website for free in Hungarian and English. We can help you with this to get to know and plan the truly accessible locations in Pécs and its surroundings. The online database of the sites explored so far can be accessed free of charge by clicking here: https://peoplefirst.hu/en/akadalymentes-pecs/

The professionally prepared, self-involved members of our so-called “sticker” team exploring the sites are working to develop this barrier-free environment in Pécs and its surroundings.

Although the database is available to you for free, exploring new locations and constantly updating existing ones costs us, of course.

With the current campaign, our goal is to collect 250.000 forints to finance this. This is the goal we have set and please help us make it happen!

Our sponsor is the Power of Humanity Foundation within the framework of the “Double Bet 2022” tender, our amount will be doubled if we manage to reach the HUF 250,000 goal by December 4. So support us!

How and where can you do it?
It is very easy to support us online with the amount of your choice on our website by clicking on the nice pink ADOMÁNYOZOK (means:DONATE) button: https://peoplefirst.hu/en/

Please pay attention to one thing if you support us:
be sure to include our motto “Good for everyone” in the personal message section to keep track of donations.
Thanks and gratitude!

Take part in the campaign with your story!
As part of the campaign, from 21. November to 4. December you can read every night on our Facebook page from an association member: Why is it good to live everyday life in an accessible environment?
If you have your own story on the subject, we are happy to read about it.
Write to us at info@peoplefirst.hu email (in English too), and we’ll post your story on Facebook. Or simply write in the comments under one of the Facebook posts. 🙂

In Hungary, every taxpayer can donate 1% of their personal income tax to an eligible NGO. Our association thanks for this year’s donations.

A special renewal general meeting was held by the People First Association on 2. October 2022. We felt that a nice sunny autumn Sunday morning was the best time for this event 🙂

The two most important topics of the General Assembly were the renewal of the management and the initiation of the public benefit organisation status registration procedure. Both require an amendment to the statutes, which is the exclusive competence of the General Assembly.
On both priority topics, a three-quarter unanimous decision was taken by the General Assembly – that is, the membership of the association present.

For the next 5 years the People First Association will be led by the following presidency:
Veronika Pataki President
Gergő Berkes Vice-President
Roland Balogh Secretary
Hilda Kerekes Member of the Board
Zoltán Borsodi Member of the Board

We held an employee sensitization on September 22. for the market inspectors and security service of the recently opened Pécs Market Hall.

The purpose of the informative discussion, initiated by the People First Association and held together with several of our partners, was to give employees an insight into how to help and how not to help customers with disabilities, what accessibility means and who cares about accessibility.

We would like to thank the participating employees and the management of the Market Hall for the openness with which they received the information of the following participating organizations: People First Association “sticker” team, Baranya County Association for the Disabled, Baranya County Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and See the World through autistic Eyes Association.

It was a great feeling that a relaxed, friendly, interactive conversation developed, and at the end of the practical demonstration in the hall, we already had a huge laugh together.

The management of the Market Hall and the kind employees were also open to the continuation, where they will be able to get to know some of the disability groups in more depth.

The joint sensitization was one of the very joyful developments in the series of discussions initiated by the TASZ about the accessibility of Pécs.
The People First Association has always been thinking in partnership because that’s the only thing we consider to be expedient and truly effective in our efforts for the city and the community.

As the next step, the People First Association invited its partners to review each location according to their own criteria in our Accessible Pécs database, using the “Write reviews” rubric. After all, as with booking.com, opinions are often the most informative for readers.
We asked our partners to write with the intention of improving and briefly, formulating their own experiences, ideas and suggestions.

Review is open to everyone, we are happy to receive as many comments as possible about the sites in the database!