This could be the motto for our year 2024, in which we have taken two of our activities to a new level: partnership and visibility.

In partnership, the stakes are getting higher, the challenge more exciting, the social engagement more important.
We can mention here our contract with the University of Pécs (PTE), which includes our Hidden City Tor-Tour as a programme offer for all their events. We can also mention the lectures given to numerous PTE students, which have been spreading the word about the importance of accessibility and the inclusive society in Hungary.
We can mention the strengthening of professional cooperation with local partners and local government, in which professional advice is playing an increasingly important role. We are pleased about this, because who else can give first-hand information on inclusion, independent living or accessibility if not the people affected?
We can mention international cooperations, where we now very strongly advocate the principle of “Nothing about us, without us”.
To this end, we have set up a People First Focus Group of our members, who are strongly shaping public attitudes at European level through their opinions and suggestions on international projects.

And that brings us to the activity.
The active members of our association do not only organise outwards, they also organise inwards. Many of them have realised the joy of organising, how good it is to work for others, to do good for others. Thanks to them, we have programmes in our InnClusive community space, which are open to all, meaning everyone is welcome!
We thank them for our joint excursions and meetings.
Thanks to them, we are working in this Focus Group, where they are having a huge impact on developments at European level.
And it is thanks to them that our Barrier-free Pécs Database is growing with truly accessible locations. This year we reached the 100th site, which crowned our 6 years of activity!!! Hip-hip-hooray to the tireless and professional People First team working in the Barrier-free Pécs Database!

We consider local cooperation to be exemplary in Pécs, and we are proud that our city offers the opportunity for self-empowerment. You can stand up for yourself in debate evenings, in regular meetings for accessible bus transport or for improving your environment, you can discuss partnerships with local companies, you can talk to the municipality about how to achieve better cooperation, you can stand as a representative in the municipal elections……
But the problem remains that many more people need to be involved. Would it take that long for Covid’s pull-back effect to take hold…?? Who knows what the explanation is, but more activity from people with disabilities would be needed.

We could be proud of many of our members again this year. Not only for their active work, organisation, participation in projects and Focus Groups, but also for getting national news and media, winning a grand prize of an international film festival, winning gold medals in international para-sport competitions, presenting at conferences and international meetings even in English, standing in local elections as representative…

Of course, we continue to educate ourselves, which is not only necessary, but also enjoyable.

Visibility remains a priority for us. Besides online media and press cooperation, presentations and professional meetings, this year’s biggest achievement is our cooperation with Universal Air, which is using the renewed Pécs-Pogány Airport. As a result, you can read about the People First Association in the in-flight magazine of Universal’s planes flying all over the world! Are we not rightly proud of this? 🙂

Let us also give you some figures:

• We ran 6 projects in 2024, which you can read more about in the Projects section of our website.
• 4 of these are Erasmus+ international partnerships, working on independent living and accessibility on a large scale.
  A bilateral Hungarian-German 3-year partnership ended in June this year, which supported the creation of our InnClusive community space (but don’t worry, the community space will continue to operate anyway).
  It was a new and big challenge for us to participate in a project supported by the International Visegrad Fund for the V4 countries. Here for the first time we wrote the international application and we are coordinating it. The topic is our Hidden City Tor-Tour.
  Our national project is the Pécs Municipal Civic Framework 2024 application, in which we have added new, truly accessible sites to our Barrier-free Pécs Database and updated some older ones. With their “Come to Pécs” Facebook campaign, we also promoted the Database and Pécs, as we see that it is possible to have a barrier-free holiday here.
• We participated in several local events, which resulted in great collaborations and thinking together: the Civil Selfie on the survey of NGOs, P-Age clubs on ageing consciously (accessibility is an important aspect here too), TASZ discussions on local accessible bus transport, Police Café, study tours, organisation of the Barrier-free Tourism Day.
• We deepen our knowledge at professional conferences and trainings, such as on accessible IT testing, the “Nothing about us, without us” workshop at the School of Public Life, or on Easy to Understand Communication.
• Among our partnerships, we had the pleasure of participating in the Embassy visit to Pécs, where we had the opportunity to discuss local civic life with Canadian, French, American, British, Dutch, Spanish, Irish, Swiss, German and Belgian embassy staff.
  We mentioned the University of Pécs, with whom we have an increasingly diverse cooperation.
  Local companies and organisations are also looking to us for professional advice, which is very warming to our hearts. We were happy to give accessibility advice to Pécs-Pogány Airport, Apollo Cinema or Crost Nonprofit Ltd.
  At the Civic and Local Government Forum, we were able to share our views on the podium, we participated in the discussions on the Local Equal Opportunities Programme and we consider the role of local government in cooperation with civic organisations to be very important.
  We are grateful for the requests from schools in and around Pécs to organise various sensitisation activities and Hidden City walks, and we are very happy to do so!
• We continue to believe that participation in the world of work is an important part of independent living. We support this by providing some work opportunities within the People First Association. This can be entrepreneurial, it can be a kind of transit employment, participation in projects.

If you like what we do, join us!
Attend our events, come to InnClusive, follow us on online media and find out all about us.
We also welcome you as an association member, email us at info@peoplefirst.hu

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Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@peoplefirstpecs