Dutch Ambassador Désirée Bonis invited NGOs from Pécs, including the People First Association, to a working lunch. At the great atmosphere we were able to talk about the situation of people with disabilities, the difficulties of their social engagement, and equal opportunity issues. The independence of NGOs, funding opportunities and human rights issues were also discussed.
The Dutch Ambassador in a very sympathetic way would like to get a picture of Hungary, not to see our country only from Budapest. Therefore, the ambassador visits every major city. Pécs was the second stop on March 22. The ambassador did not come for a short visit, she spends two days in our city, meeting with many stakeholders, and also visiting the beauties of the city.
It was a pleasure to see the interest, the openness to our affairs.
Thank you for being together Emberség Erejével Alapítvány, Élmény Tár, Szabad Pécs, Zöld Fiatalok!

Program information – the dry facts:
Erasmus+
Cooperation to promote innovation and exchange good practices
Strategic partnerships
The main objective of the project: innovation
Contract Number: 2018-1-DE02-KA204-005122
Project title: European Peer Counselor Training in Accessible Tourism
Short name: Peer-AcT
Duration: 01.11.2018 – 31.08.2021  34 months

History of what we started:
Regulations such as the objectives of European lifelong learning programmes, the UN Convention on the protection of the rights of people with disabilities, or the EU Disability Strategy 2020 allow for a more equal participation of persons with special educational needs in adult education activities, in which they themselves may even participate as educators. 

The EU Disability Strategy requires accessibility of tourist offers and destinations and the possibility of accessible travel in general. Unfortunately in most tourist destinations only a few facilities are barrier-free, there is no barrier-free entire service chain, and only a small number of tourism employees have the right awareness and skills for inclusive tourism. In addition, only a few people with disabilities participate in existing training programmes. Progress has been made in some European countries and destinations, but this is not enough to meet the requirements of the UN Convention and European accessible tourism strategies.

The key to implementing the above-mentioned strategies is the much better quality TRAINING of decision-makers and employees. The main principle in social inclusion is that persons with disabilities should participate as experts in their own interests in all relevant topics, activities and processes.

Therefore, the project had two main target groups in training activities:
1. on the one hand, people with disabilities as peer-to-peer advisors,
2. on the other hand, employees of central decision-makers, private and public institutions and companies in the tourism and leisure industries.

Six partners from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Croatia have developed and implemented an innovative methodology for training of people with disabilities as adult educators on accessible tourism.

The main activities were: 

1. Developing a methodology for peer counseling in accessible tourism. In English, the shorter version is available in all partner countries.
2. Development of a counseling and training methodology and a curriculum for the training of peer counselors. Available in English and 5 partner countries. We held a total of 11 courses during the project with 59 participants.
3. Establishment of 5 regional training centres, developing a methodology in English and in the languages of the 5 partner countries. 6 training sessions were held by Peer-AcT trainers for tourism experts.
4. Develop a training course for professionals interested in accessible tourism. Available in English and 5 partner countries. We have 5 pilot courses. 
5. Develop an E-learning course with tutorials and 10 self-produced videos. Available in English and 5 partner countries via Moodle app.  Through the Laya Platform it is available in subtitles, sign language and easy-to-understand language. This is supported by a manual in English and German.
6. Development of a marketing and project implementation summary manual. Available in English and 5 partner countries. 

What have we achieved?
– We have trained a total of 63 people with disabilities in the five partner countries to become Peer-AcT consultants.
– 46 Peer-AcT trainers and tourism experts have received training in accessible tourism in the Training centres
– 41 representatives in the tourism sector participated in inclusive and accessible tourism Peer-AcT courses.
– We held 7 multiplier events for people with disabilities with 68 participants, 5 multiplier events for tourism experts with 85 participants,
– We held 6 international meetings and study tours
– we held an intermediate conference in Hungary/Orfű and a final conference in Bossolasco, Italy
– We sent out 6 newsletters and created a project brochure in English and 5 partner countries

The innovation offered by the project (because that’s always the point):
– On the one hand, the involvement of people with disabilities as experts at all levels of the project with the aim of training them as accessible tourism trainers. In doing so, we are making a claim that they should be involved in the UN convention’s affairs concerning them on their own behalf.
– The second innovation is the formation of a mixed group of disabled experts and tourism experts, who together cover the necessary knowledge to be used in the training and development of accessible tourism.
– We provide a free methodology for peer-to-peer counselling and mentoring in accessible tourism, and we provide 3 inclusive training courses with manuals, E-learning opportunities for people with disabilities and for able bodied people.

The results of the project have been continuously widely published: for NGOs, regional and national authorities, European agencies and networks, through our website, social media, newsletters and the press.
The project partners held public workshops for stakeholders at their locations and organized two conferences to inform them about the results and activities of the project. 

The most important long-term effects of the project are:
– strengthening the equal participation of people with disabilities as peer experts and adult educators
– raising awareness, skills and knowledge of decision-makers, tourism and leisure workers, and strengthening their new way of thinking
– facilitating the european cooperation and exchange of experience between peer experts
Indirect:
– increasing accessibility to tourist destinations
– start creating so-called barrier-free service chains

Partners in the project:
Verein zur sozialen und beruflichen Integration e.V. – Germany
KOPF, HAND und FUSS gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Bildung mbH – Germany
Consorzio Turistico Langhe Monferrato Roero – Italy
Unione Montana Alta Langa – Italy
Udruga za kreativni razvoj Slap – Croatia
Asociación para el Estudio y Promoción del Bienestar Social – Spain
Zöld-Aktív Szociális Szövetkezet – Hungary
Pécsi Tudományegyetem – Hungary
People First Egyesület Pécs – Hungary

Sustainability of the project:
63 trained Peer-AcT trainers will continue to use their competencies as adult trainers on a main or part-time role, enabling them to develop their own personalities as persons with disabilities. They can also find new occupations, such as employment in Erfurt in the advice project on inclusive housing, in Pécs in the Hidden City accessible city tour as a tour guide, or in the InnClusive Community Space as a barrier-free tourism peer-advisor, or in Bossolasco employment in the city tourist office.
Through guidelines and marketing plans published in the Peer-AcT handbook, Peer-AcT partners and followers can set up local training centers, hold personal and E-learning courses for people with disabilities and tourism professionals on accessible tourism.

You can find us, the People First Association, in our InnClusive Community Space, where our trained Peer-AcT consultants regularly provide advice on accessible tourism every month.
You can read more about the InnClusive Community Space here: https://peoplefirst.hu/en/befogado/
You can reach us here: pfpecs@gmail.com

You can find everything on the Peer-AcT project website: http://peeract.eu/

We are grateful to our supporters for their help. And we consider it our duty to remain transparent, that is to report on what we spend your forints on for us.

With the Adományozok (Donate) button on our website you primarily support accessibility, especially the maintenance and expansion of our Barrier-free Pécs database.

We have prepared a report on the use of donations received so far on the Adományozok (Donations) button, which you can read on the NIOK adjukossze.hu page under the “Hírek/Beszámolók – News/Reports” tab of our campaign (available in Hungarian): Report January 2022

Or on the People First Association’s website in the Barrier-free Pécs menu: Report January 2022

Let’s stay in touch with us!
You make us very happy when you become our constant supporters.

We report to you about the progress of our extremely exciting international ARTcoWORKers project linking the arts and people with disabilities.

At the moment the training curriculum is being prepared, we could say it’s almost done. The aim of this is to develop training to support prospective trainers in facilitating cooperation between people with disabilities and interested representatives of the various arts sectors in each country.

You will soon receive the first Newsletter in Hungarian, we hope you will like it.

On ARTcoWORKers Facebook and Website we regularly publish interesting, informative and even good examples to follow from all over the world, and news about the project. You can follow ARTcoWORKers on Facebook here: ARTcoWORKers Facebook
and this is the website: ARTcoWORKers Web

In April we will meet in person in Skopje/Macedonia, where we will perfect the training and start to develop a fantastic, common shadow play, which you will see at the final festival-conference, which will be in PÉCS! Thus, the Skopje meeting is already being organized with steam. Four of us will travel from the People First association, and we are already very excited and preparing for the program.

You can read more about the ARTcoWORKers project in the Projects menu here: ARTcoWORKers menü

Follow this great project on People First and ARTcoWORKers Facebook pages! We are also very happy with all the comments!

From now on, we will launch a peer-to-peer consultation on the topic of accessible tourism and independent living in our “InnClusive” Community Space!

Our qualified, certified consultants of the Peer-AcT international project are now regularly waiting for everyone at the appointed consulting times.
They mainly help with inclusive/accessible tourism, but they are waiting for questions about independent living as well.
The aim is for peers to help peers, i.e. we welcome people with disabilities who have questions about accessible tourism.

Later we also launch consultancy and training for tourism experts and actors on accessible tourism.

The first introductory consultancy is held by Marcell Kopa and Roland Balogh Peer-AcT consultants at the InnClusive Community Space, on Tuesday, 18. January 2022. from 10:00 to 12:00.
After that, we are waiting for you on the third Tuesday of each month. One month in the morning, the other month in the afternoon will be available our consultants, so that everyone can find us.

You can read more about the availability of the InnClusive Community Square, parking, etc. here: InnClusive Community Space

More information about the Peer-AcT project, which was trained by our consultants, can be found here: Peer-AcT accessible tourism project

Three letters which most of us don’t know. What’s wrong is that they don’t know who it’s for.
CSR is an acronym for Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility is the activity a company does for the well-being of the community around it.
What is exciting about it is that it is both an economic and a social issue, because if a company helps the community around it, it builds its own brand, so it will be sympathetic, and this will greatly promotes business recovery.

CSR also includes promoting equal opportunities and supporting NGOs working for this reason – and that is where we come in.

Unfortunately, it is not yet evident in Hungary that a company is unthinkable without CSR activity, but there are encouraging signs. For the time being, we can talk about companies working on the international stage or foreign-owned companies.

For the People First Association 2021 has brought hope, confidence and faith in the goodness of company managers and employees. Our association was able to participate in the following CSR grants, for which we are very grateful  – even for the opportunities and the way of thinking!

• In June we participated in a GE (General Electric) competition, where we applied for pro bono support for communication and marketing. So we wouldn’t have gotten paid, we’d get professional help. Unfortunately, we didn’t win it, but the opportunity has already thrilled us.
• In July the Körber Hungária Machine Manufacturing Ltd., based in Pécs, launched a tender for activities aimed at supporting NGOs for the benefit of the community due to the Covid-19 outbreak. We were not successful in this competition either, but unexpectedly for Christmas we received a 150.000 HUF grant from the employees of Körber, who gave up their own Christmas present to support NGOs that did not win in the summer, but still like them! This is a really touching form of CSR, and it was a great pleasure for us.
• In September Spar had the opportunity to support on the basis of a tender, from which we were delighted to receive HUF 50,000 in the form of nice red vouchers. It will be of great use in our “InnClusive” Community Space!
• From October we have been invited to the usual free rehearsals of the Pannon Philharmonic, which is offered to NGOs dealing with disadvantaged people and people with disabilities. We’ve lived and live with it, we love free rehearsals, which we think are even more exciting than real shows.
• The very different ways in which CSR can be implemented also shows the case of our national conference in November. We ordered the catering from Reggeli (Breakfast and brunch restaurant), which is already well known for its social responsibility. Their CSR philosophy is to provide discounts to certain social NGOs from the tailored price. This has been a huge help to us.
• And in December we registered for OTP’s new program (the largest bank in Hungary), where a case can be selected within the framework of CSR, which can be supported by anyone with any amount, even a few hundred Forints, in several bank transactional ways, and the bank will send the donation to the selected organization. It’s a fantastic initiative, we hope to get in, it’s still a question of the future.

Thank you to the companies and firms for thinking like this and making the world a better place!
Go Pécs, let have as many small and large companies as possible that want to develop while helping communities. Let’s be exemplary in that too!

From 1st of December you can read a gift from our association members every day on our Facebook page. This can be a favorite citation, a self poem, own short story or fairy tale, recipe idea, nice picture, own video….. something that reflects the individuality of our member and which we think can bring joy to you who follow and read us.

Follow us and read us every day on our Facebook page in https://www.facebook.com/PeopleFirstHun. We hope we can bring you a little joy in the Advent preparation.

We also welcome you to send us a gift in a comment under Facebook posts: your own writing, favorite picture, decoration idea, recipe, citation…… it make us happy believe it!

Two-and-a-half years of process, 3 civil forums, the involvement of 609 NGOs in Pécs, the unprecedented detailed analysis of the situation in Pécs – PÉCS CIVIC CONCEPT as a real bottom-up initiative has arrived in finis.

On November 30. 2021. Gábor Zag deputy mayor, dr. Márta Kunszt a civil councillor, and the Nevelők Háza Association invited the NGOs actively involved in the process to the banquet hall of the City Hall Pécs for a final professional consultation, after which the draft will be submitted to the general assembly.

In the last two and a half years, many of us have commented on the draft concept, many of us have shaped it, and the Nevelők Háza Association has agreed to compile the Civil Concept of the city of Pécs.

The concept is definitely good!
It involves partnerships with civilians from the city, more efficient public service tasks, urban volunteering.
Within the framework of the partnership professional working groups will be formed, a civil database will be created, an urban civic portal and a civil column will be established, there will be a Pécs Civil Citizens’ Day event, a Civil Tender Fund, the districts will be able to decide on their own developments, and a civil coordinator institution will start its work to coordinate the relations between the municipality and the civilians.

We look forward to the decision of the general assembly in December, and then to work with the municipality and our civil partners!

According to the promise of deputy mayor Gábor Zag, this concept certainly did not fall for the desk drawer. We think that we civilians should also do it, but as we saw, the organizations in Pécs are ready for action.