The Approach to Development of Leisure Centres
Leisure-time centres have a great potential for supporting and developing young people and working with them and for including different groups.
Today, leisure-time centres offer high quality group activities, especially for children up to the age of fifteen; however, they do not always sufficiently reflect the increased interest in leisure activities and the various changes in young people's lives and their needs.
After analysing and mapping the situation, we saw a significant need for the development of the leisure-time infrastructure, and we identified a way to make this happen in order to provide for young people (and others) a space for leisure in open and accessible places.
We have developed a concept that seeks to maintain, improve and expand the current activities and services of leisure-time centres with the following priorities:
- Innovative approaches and the development of current leisure activities
- The development of activities offered to youth and the capacity for youth work
- An emphasis on systematic inclusion and support for children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and accessibility to leisure-time centres for all
- Leisure-time centres as places for the development of community life in the city
- Use of the centres’ premises outside their primary activity
- Key challenges facing the community and how to address them in the leisure-time centres’ operation
- Promoting and actively addressing mental health, the prevention of addiction, violence and extremism and the risks of nightlife for youth