Ce que notre communauté nous a dit : l'Assemblée générale 2026 de Iguality

Over 60 people joined this year, up from around 30 last year: long-time participants, volunteers, and brand-new faces, all sharing space, food, and conversation. As part of the evening, we ran our live community input workshop, where small groups jotted down feedback, ideas, and questions and saw them appear straight onto the big screen. This blog post is our way of responding to everything that came in.

Before diving into the input, the good news: our 2025 activities and accounts, and our plans for 2026, were presented and approved with no doubts or objections raised. Thank you for the trust!

Here's what came in, and our take on it.

What's working

People were warm about the psychological support sessions, the mix of sports activities, and the art, yoga, and one-on-one therapy offerings. Several groups specifically highlighted how welcoming and resourceful the community feels, especially for people opening up for the first time, and how striking it was to see such a mixed crowd of participants, volunteers, and new joiners eager to learn more about Iguality.

On sports, the message was simple: keep going. We will. We're actively seeking funding for women's football, more running, more hiking, and more.

Ideas and suggestions, all in one place

A huge range of ideas came in, so here's where each one stands:

Already planned or in motion:

• On volunteering, one group asked for more clarity on what roles actually exist. Fair point: we're continuously refining this. Our therapist and sports volunteer roles are well defined; we're working on defining the rest more clearly too.
• Buddy Program pairing migrants with locals around shared interests, also pairing migrants with migrants for peer networks, and including picnics where people share food from their home countries: all part of the same growing initiative.
• Talking groups and regular group therapy, organised by shared identity or age (e.g. LGBT, refugees): planned for next year.
• Animal-related activities: very much on our radar; we already have Antje, a wonderful volunteer who also works at an animal shelter, and the idea is on our minds.
• More structure and guidance within Art Therapy sessions, for people without an arts background, so they feel less lost: noted and planned.
• On communication: every post does include Spanish at the bottom, but we're considering leading with Spanish and following with English to make this even clearer.

Being considered, with caveats:

• Cooking activities, and Zumba/dance/movement therapy and cold water swimming: all lovely ideas, but each would be a new line of activity, and not easy to organise right away. We're considering them.
• Massage therapy: potentially, though we're checking how it fits our current goals.
• Martial arts for younger men (e.g. jujutsu, aikido) as an outreach tool: a great idea, but a new line of activity, so not something we can commit to soon.
• Language exchange and broader hobby/skills workshops (ceramics, art, work-skills sessions): we love these ideas, but our core focus stays on mental health. Language connection may find a home within the Buddy Program rather than as standalone classes.

Noted for the future:

• Activities sponsored by local businesses.

Looking ahead

Someone asked what my biggest goal for 2026 is, as founder. My answer: having an even more stable core team with more hours, that feels fully supported and motivated to extend our impact even further, so we can become a real mental health institute, with open access to all and with a walk-in office to help even more people.

Thank you to everyone who joined, contributed, and helped make this year's Assembly such a rich, honest, and energising session. On to 2026!

Special thanks to: Porsche Digital, and especially Scott and Irene, for hosting us; Marina and her partner for arranging the music; Caro, our ambassador, and Zeta from ANCE (Greece), for their fantastic talks; and Petra for taking photos, as always. This event was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.