Program: Visegrad Fund
Dates:
- Pécs, Hungary, 14—16 May 2024
- Poznan Poland, 15—17 July 2024
- Vrchlabí, Czech Republic, 19—20 August 2024
Project consortium: People First Hungary (beneficiary), SOWELO Foundation (Poland) and EYCB (Czech Republic)
Please check out the official project webpage here: https://peoplefirst.hu/en/blog-post/walk-in-our-shoes-international-v4-project/
Project reports/updates:
Walk in Our Shoes – Inclusive City Adventure
First Hidden City Tour – Pécs, Hungary, 14—16 May 2024
It was our priviledge to be part of the first Hidden City Tour in Pécs, Hungary 🇭🇺 which was developled as a part of the Visegrad-funded „Walk in Our Shoes“ Project.
📅 In the dates 14 and 16 May 2024, the youth workers of People First – HU hosted our team and a team from 🇵🇱 Fundacja Sowelo in beautiful Pécs, Hungary as part of the V4-funded project „Walk in Our Shoes – Inclusive city adventure“ which aims at making cities more inclusive to all people, regardless of their (dis)ability.
⛪ During these three days the Czech 🇨🇿 and Polish 🇵🇱 teams had the chance to discover the beauty of Pécs in an accessible way to all, under the guidance of the 🇭🇺Hungarian beneficiary: People First – HU.
👩🏫 During this visit, both the Polish and the Czech teams took the opportunity to present their own Hidden City Tours preparation progress. The tours will take place in beautiful Poznan, Poland 🇵🇱 in July 2024 and in gorgeous Vrchlabí, Czech Republic 🇨🇿 in August 2024.
The realisation of this project is only possible through the kind co-financing of the Visegrad Fund (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). The mission of the Program is to support ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
21 June 2024
The Czech experts are intensively working on the study tour route. The team finalised the tour plans and details, observing carefully individual barriers along the way. The tour is now in its write-up phase. The team is also coming up with the accompanying activities plan for the rest of the time in Vrchlabí.
Walk in Our Shoes – Inclusive City Adventure
Second Hidden City Tour – Poznań, Poland, 15—17 July 2024
(People First Hungary) were hosted by our wonderful Polish partners from SOWELO Foundation.🇵🇱
Walk in Our Shoes – Inclusive City Adventure
Third Hidden City Tour – Vrchlabí, Czech Republic, 19—21 August 2024
In the magical and sunny days of 19th through 21st August we had the honour to host our partners from Hungary and Poland in gorgeous mountainous Vrchlabí. The Vrchlabí tour was the last of the study visits in this project named „𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗲𝘀 – 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲“. This time it was our turn to host our partners in a beautiful little town of Vrchlabí, in the very heart of the Giant Mountains (Krkonoše). This last visit presented an opportunity to meet in person for the very last time with our international partners: representatives of the People First organisation from Hungary and the SOWELO Foundation from Poland.
🧡Together with our consortium we took an accessibility walk around Vrchlabí. The programme of this study tour was developed by our wonderful two disabled guides Valerie and Alžběta. We also discussed further project tasks, including an online conference summarising the project results, outcomes, achievements, lessons learnt and dissemination.
🧡 On 27th September 2024 (10am till noon, CET time), during the above-mentioned online conference, our whole consortium will present (among others) the accessible tourism methodology for people with disabilities. Thanks to this, organisations, municipalities, companies, NGOs as well as the general public will be able to plan and implement short, medium as well as long trips to make tourism accessible to everyone.
💬If you would like to take part in the September conference (for free), please register here: https://forms.gle/HqiaqwkNgEij9rza9
🔗 More information about the project on the website: https://peoplefirst.hu/en/blog-post/walk-in-our-shoes-international-v4-project/
Online conference – 27th September 2024
It was our honour to co-host our exciting online conference which took place on Friday, 27th September (10am till noon)
In this online conference we summed up the project results of our wonderful, long-term, year-long 📢𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐬 – 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 ♿️
🖇️Together with our international partners from People First – HU 🇭🇺 Hungary and Fundacja Sowelo from Poland 🇵🇱 we hosted an online conference where we presented the overview and summary of our long-term project „Walk in Our Shoes – Inclusive city adventure“.
During the conference:
💎 Our guests learned what accessible tourism is and why it is important for all of us to focus on its implementation in our cities,
💎 We talked about our unique, socially sensitising city walks, a novel approach to tourism, as well as how this can be used as a business model,
💎 Our guests were able to gain insight into accessible tourism through the personal experiences of travelers with disabilities. Please watch the incredible video created by the Czech team specifically for this conference here: https://youtu.be/DbiYAMUbR7Y
💎 Our guests also learnt how what kind of support we can provide you through your journey in implementing accessible tourism practices,
🆓Thanks to the financial support of International Visegrad Fund, ❤️ our conference was 🆓FREE
The project is co-financed by the governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
We are honoured to present the results of our long-term project „Walk In Our Shoes: Inclusive City Adventure“, an initiative through which anyone can experience tourist attractions in a completely novel way. Experience a walk through Vrchlabí, Czech Republic from the perspective of a person with visual impairment; seat yourself in a wheelchair and try to wheel yourself up to the local mosque in the Hungarian city of Pécs; or, take a stroll with a pushchair through the square in Poznań, Poland. Be a part of this novel adventure: close your eyes and imagine the buildings by touching their mockups, overcome urban obstacles in a wheelchair and gain new experiences and knowledge. This unconventional urban adventure will allow you to gain insight into how important it is to build inclusive societies and cities for everyone.
The leader of this project is the Hungarian organisation People First, who created a detailed methodology for Hidden City Tours, during which disabled guides present their cities to tourists from their point of view – using games, anecdotes and interactive demonstrations. The methodology was developed for the beautiful city of Pécs, where these Hidden City Tours take place on regular basis in Hungarian and in English. The Polish partner in this project is SOWELO Foundation, who implemented the Hidden City Tours in beautiful Poznan. The Czech partner in this project is EYCB, who together with teachers and students of the Secondary School of Olga Havlová in Jánské Lázně developed a Hidden City Tour for the beautiful town of Vrchlabí, located in the foothills of the breathtaking Krkonoše Mountains.
If this concept caught your attention and you would like to learn more about it (or even implement it in your home town), visit the project website Hidden City Tour. Here you can learn about this concept in depth and gain access to important materials, the methodology, good practices and advice that will allow you to organise your own inclusive adventure in your city. The project website was developed by the Hungarian organisation People First and all materials are in English: https://hiddencity.eu/
The project is co-financed by the governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in central Europe.
