At the New Year’s reception hosted by the district of Stendal, the Hanseatic City of Stendal and Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal, more than 350 guests from politics, administration, voluntary work and civil society came together at Theater der Altmark on 16 January 2026. The event has become a firmly established date in the regional calendar and provides a space for exchange on current developments and shared questions for the future.

Part of the team of the Kompetenzzentrum Inklusive Bildung Sachsen-Anhalt (KIB) attended the event. For us, events like this are an important part of our work. They create opportunities for encounters beyond formal working contexts and open up conversations with people who actively help shape social processes in the region.

Formats such as this make it particularly clear how closely questions of education, participation and social cohesion are connected. For us, showing presence means bringing inclusion into the places where networks are formed, decisions are prepared and civic engagement becomes visible.

Direct exchange with representatives from different areas of public life helps to embed the perspectives of people with disabilities more strongly in existing structures and to raise awareness of inclusive approaches.

Events like this are therefore not only social meeting points, but also important points of connection for our work: they allow us to maintain contacts, gather new impulses and anchor inclusion as a cross-cutting issue in regional dialogue.

We would like to thank the organisers for the invitation and for creating such a successful setting for the New Year’s reception. Alongside the speeches, the event was enriched by musical contributions from the orchestra and choir of the Stendal School of Music and Art and created valuable space for exchange and encounter.