In 2025, the life of People First Public Benefit Association – Pécs was filled with dynamic moments and new opportunities.
Our greatest progress in 2025 was that we managed to build increasingly effective, mutually beneficial cooperation with local companies. We are still at the beginning of this journey, and the path leading here required serious preparation and provided us with valuable experience. By now, it is clearly visible how civil and corporate resources complement each other, we have recognized each other’s strengths and the interactions between them. Something new and promising has clearly begun, something that is extremely important to us and that also defines our main directions for the coming year.
Maintaining our independent operation remains important to us, therefore we prepared a number of grant applications. This year, 16 applications were submitted, 8 of which were successful, while the others are still in progress or waiting for an opportunity to come. Alongside national and international grants, corporate and municipal partners, as well as individual supporters are increasingly present, significantly supporting our causes and advancing community interests together with us. We are incredibly grateful for this.
We worked on and continue to work on nine projects:
We concluded this year the Visegrad Fund cooperation focusing on accessible tourism, the aim of which was the international dissemination of our Hidden City Tor-Tour. We also closed our Soul Mate project, which aimed to provide mental support for people with disabilities in the primary labor market. Within the Indeed project, we explored best practices of independent living from other countries, together with very pleasant partners.
The launch of the international FairCare project was a major and exciting task, as it strengthens dialogue among groups involved in long-term care.
The main phase of the CODE project also started this year, focusing on accessibility in the banking sector.
Among national grants, the successful application to the Pécs City Civil Fund brought us great joy, through which we are developing the Barrier-free Pécs Database – his time in a completely new way.
We have also joined the RePont network, which means that since 2025, you can donate the refund value of your recycled bottles and cans to support our organization.
The Hungarian 1% campaign required a great deal of work, and we already kindly ask you not to forget us – and civil organizations in general – in 2026 either. (The Hungarian 1% campaign allows individuals to donate 1% of their personal income tax to any registered civil organization participating in the campaign.)
Toward the end of the year, a new Visegrad Fund project began to take shape, in which additional international teams expressed interest in learning about and implementing our Hidden City Tor-Tour in their own countries. You will see the results of this next year as well.
We are very grateful to the companies and individuals who support our work with their financial contributions!
Our events and meetings were equally rich. We participated in international meetings and trainings, organized love-pebble painting and other programs in our InnClusive Community Space involving the city’s residents. We actively took part again this year in the city’s civil life and successfully organized open workshops on topics affecting people with disabilities. The Hungarian Advisory Group of the FairCare project carried out (and continues to carry out) an enormous amount of work. The group consists not only of People First members but also of participants joining from across the country. We also held our annual general assembly and spent many occasions meeting, having coffee, discussing, coordinating, and weaving new ideas for the future.
Changes also took place within our membership, with new members joining and others leaving. Sadly, one of our members passed away, which deeply affected our community. Our new university-student secretary began organizing internal life in an innovative way. Our member-based Focus Group has for years actively reviewed and shaped the progress of our international projects in line with the principle of “Nothing About Us Without Us.” We also represented our interests in a local case concerning the living situations of people with disabilities.
We continue to regularly participate in trainings in the form of coaching, mentoring, conferences, workshops, clubs, and meetings. Every new piece of knowledge and skill enables us to better represent our interests, work more effectively, and create as many opportunities as possible for our members.
Partnerships remain a priority at People First, we firmly believe that together we can achieve much more. Among others, we moved forward together with P-Age clubs for quality ageing, with TASZ (Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, an organization promoting civil rights) for accessible public transport in Pécs, with the Janus Pannonius Museum for accessible museum experiences, with the University of Pécs in creating an accessible tourism textbook and delivering university lectures, with Kodály High School by preparing the sign language component of an awareness-raising theatrical play, and with the City Hall in the Smart Tourism European Capital and Access City Award applications.
We hosted international volunteers, which brought exciting new elements into our lives, supported university students’ professional internships, and took on a leading role in the working group of the Pécs Civil Database.
Providing employment opportunities for our members remains a key task for us, as it is also part of preparing for independent living.
The year 2025 proved that the strength of People First Public Benefit Association – Pécs lies in our community, cooperation, new opportunities, and creativity. We are ready to create new adventures, projects, and opportunities in 2026, more and more together, with you.
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