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We are creating an Independent Living Centre in Pécs

We’ve been planning an international project for three years, and now it’s coming to fruition! Can you imagine what that feels like?

With the support of Aktion Mensch in Germany, we will create a community space in Pécs, which will act as the Independent Living Centre.
Soon you can come to us for a coffee, ask for information, advice , participate in trainings, workshops, clubs, events, exhibitions.

We’ll do it all with you, according to what you need.

Our main partner in this is Verein zur sozialen und beruflichen Integration e.V. – VSBI in Germany, and the venue will be in the separate accessible building of the House of Civil Communities.

For more information about our Aktion Mensch project here on our website in projects menu.

The international project linking art and disability has been launched

With today’s kick-off meeting, i.e. the distribution of tasks our international Erasmus+ project called ARTcoWorkers has begun.

The project is carried out in cooperation with four countries, aiming to combine art, creative industry – and disability, human rights, social inclusion. All this under the flag of the pandemic, as it is where now the arts/creative industry and people with disabilities are most needed help. Of course, the effects of the project are long-term.

Today’s meeting was originally scheduled to take place in Erfurt, Germany, but the pandemic intervened here too, so the project partners met online for the first time from Germany, Hungary, Macedonia and the Netherlands.

We will continue to develop the methodology, i.e. the theoretical background, and soon the PR team will meet on 17. May. It’s going to be a very exciting project, keep an eye on developments!

We finally got an answer from the Ombudsman

Last year on 31. July 2020. we sent a complaint to the Ombudsman. We indicated in it, that the practises of the institutions in Covid are very different. There are places where the elderly and disabled can be visited to this day, but in other places residents have to live locked for almost a year.

The Ombudsman waited almost for the end of the third wave of Covid. But at least he answered. At length, in detail, politely, but…..Just the requested guideline for the heads of institutions is missing, with wich they could make a prepared decision in future epidemics, they would not violet fundamental human rights and segregate groups of people.

You can read the history in our previous posts in the News menu.

The letter can be read in Hungarian: Intézményi bezártság Ombudsman válasz 2021.03.30.

Newsletter: How’s “Sticker project 3.” going?

We regularly report on the project to our donators in a direct e-mail, and  to those interested in our Barrier-free Pécs database here on our web site.

In our first Newsletter we can report on:

  • the team was formed in December 2020. We have prepared an accurate action and funding plan
  • In January 2021 we held a consultation with Deputy Mayor Lajos Nyögéri. The main topic was cooperation on the Accessible Pécs database
  • we evaluated the 2020 Live Broadcast (“Élő Adás”) with the Pécs Community Foundation  in January, and in March we continued with how this year can be even more exciting, and what can we former participants help with?
  • experiencing the power of the community, we have become familiar with and participate in other community donation systems
  • we have received several requests for partnerships, which will bring a new color and new aspects to the database.
  • Thanks to our new member from the USA and our IT engineer Balázs Oláh, we are currently in the process of perfecting the database. This is very important for us, because professionalism is one of our basic expectations for ourselves.
  • In February 2014 we consulted with the Department of Economic Development at the Town Hall, where we decided on the cooperation that would benefit the citizens of Pécs in various forms in the future in the field of accessible urban development, tourism and city marketing.
  • we made short films with the team members showing “Why do I care about the sticker team?” It will be visible on Facebook soon.
  • we have revisited many locations, agreed, discussed and so far seen many positive changes in accessibility in the city. All this is displayed continuously in the database.
  • the supported printer/scanner is in constant work, thank you very much to BolkoDesign! We also hope to get the cameras on offer as soon as possible and take high-quality pictures of the locations. This is important because it lets everyone decide for himself, how can a location be accepted for them from an accessible point of view

That’s where we are now. Due to the 3rd wave of Covid, the country will be closed for two weeks, so now we are doing administrative/organizing work, but we will start again at the end of March.

We are planning our conference in Pécs for the summer with the national participants and decision-makers involved in the topic.

This year, in addition to updating the existing locations, we will also explore the accessibility of all hotels and accommodations in Pécs.

All this is done by team members for a minimum fee, but with maximum heart! We love this project and we will never stop 🙂

Follow us and our sticker project on Facebook in English too: https://www.facebook.com/PeopleFirstHun
and on our website: http://peoplefirst.hu/en/
You can also find our accessible Pécs database on our website: http://peoplefirst.hu/en/akadalymentes-pecs/

We wish you a good spring, perseverance, good health!

Veronika Pataki, President

and the People First “sticker” team

Closing report: NFSZK FOF2019 – STICKER project 2.

The project entitled “Pécs without barrier” from 01.09. 2019 to 31.08. 2020 was a continuation of our “sticker ” project, which started in 2018 and explores the accessible locations of Pécs.

Although the Covid 19 outbreak had a strong impact on the project, it did not prevent it from being carried out. We were able to fully accomplish the basic objective of continuing to map important accessbile places from a residential and tourist point of view, marking the truly accessible sites with our own stickers, and the project were carried out by our disabled members who had already gained experience in this activity. The explored locations were organized into the own databases in Hungarian and English by category, published free of charge on our website in a menu (Barrier-free Pécs (EN) )   and promoted through the media throughout the country.

We have complemented our previous activities by exploring accessibility for the hearing impaired and visually impaired, and by presenting access to certain locations (bus, zebras, sidewalks, car parks).

Since social inclusion is still the fundamental goal, we have emphasized strongly this time that accessibility is important not only for people with disabilities, but also for people with strollers, the elderly, temporary injuries or for persons travelling with luggage!

We carried out very intensive and effective online marketing and press work, put up posters on frequented locations in Pécs, made video flashmob, built partnerships and conducted lobbying activities.

New accessible locations explored during the project: 6 restaurants/cafes, 7 shops, 5 sports and cultural institutions, 4 tourist attractions, 5 public institutions, 3 tourist trails. A total of 30 new locations.

Results: we have found that there is a huge demand for an accessible database, and the maintainers of the sites themselves are happy to participate. The press showed a great deal of interest in our work, as did other local and national NGOs, which brought the association a great deal of notion. A very important achievement is the development of a responsible, professional team, where members work very consciously with serious communication skills, learning the importance of team work, community activity and work. We are very pleased that we have also managed to establish a positive relationship with the municipality of Pécs and with the tourist offices, which we expect a lot from this in the future.

It is very important to us that an accessible database is only worth something if as many people as possible know it, and if we keep the data fresh all the time, so we will definitely continue the “sticker” project.

First meeting of the organising committee – supporters welcome

On the Day of Hungarian Parasport on 22.02.2021, the organizing committee held its first meeting at the Medvehagyma House in Orfű. Online our volunteers had the opportunity to comment on last year’s evaluation and the basic ideas for this year’s event.

What is already certain: we are planning the 5th, – birthday – Barrier-free Tourism Day on 04.09.2021. on Saturday.

We would like to continue to hold a preparatory workshop so that we can adapt as much as possible to the needs of people with disabilities and those who offer the programme of the event.

We plan to work closely with as many partner organisations as possible, and we will also invite a patron to represent the festival.

However, we are looking forward to sponsors, as for the first time this year we do not see any application support for our niche and unique event! We are happy with ideas and help, let’s organize together!