The situation in the Teplice region and surrounding area.
Salesians came to North Bohemia, to the Osek monastery, after WWII after the German speaking Cistercians had been driven out from there. The Salesians founded their home there and started their activities in the large surrounding area. Unfortunately their work was discontinued at night from the 13th to 14th April 1950, when the monastery was violently taken over by communists. So the following activities only started after 1968 and recently from 1990 when in November 1990 the Salesian Youth Centre in Teplice-©anov was opened in the street Pod Doubravkou. Unfortunately the structural state of the house was not suitable and the house was sold and the centre was closed in 1996. The current centre was opened on 25th February 1999 in a building belonging to the Town Counsel of Teplice and since 1st September 2000 the centre became part of the school system in the Czech Republic.
Teplice is a town with the population of about 55 000 inhabitants and is one of the towns with the highest crime rate in the Czech Republic. The fact that the well-known road the E55 goes through the town can go a long way to showthe types of problems that can be expected here. Criminal offences, drug abuse, alcoholism, promiscuity are the main issues that can be met here more often than elsewhere in the Czech Republic. A very closely situated border, dividing not long ago, the worlds of the “poor and rich”, has attracted many people who have a vision of easy money. Prostitution, drugs, elicit trade, human trafficing and with them the ever presence of gangs, is not an environment suitable for the good development of young people. The border fortunately disappeared but the attitudes of people remained. We have to look more to history to show where the problems started and to see another fact influencing the region. The region was forcefully evacuated (about 75% of the inhabitants) and the new people who arrived, came to a country where everything was everybody`s and nobody`s at the same time. The results were ignorance towards the environment and society and selfishness. They are not only connected with people from the underclass’s but also it is a matter for the whole of society with little exeption. People here do not take the opportunities to meet together, grow spiritually or get to know each other.
The later problems have influenced mainly the children and youngsters. In their informative time of life, they spend all their time in the streets, at the slotmachines, casinos or in places completely out of sight of their parents` (who are not very interested how their kids spend their time anyway!) – most of them are not able to (for various reasons) to look after them nor to show them the hope, love, family values and perspective as parents elswhere do. So the children and youngsters often miss out on the emotional as well as material family values. They are under big influence’s that is affecting not only this generation but also the following one too. Most of them are not even interested in attending something regularly, such as free-time clubs or other activities within special organizations.Salesian Youth Centre Teplice
GOALSThe Salesian Youth Centre in Teplice has been helping young people to use their free time meaningfully since 1991. Our intention is to respond to the unfortunate social situation of the many deprived youngsters.
We help them to have a reasonable alternative choice of howto spend their free time by providing a safe, friendly and stimulating environment in which they can feel welcome.
We are aware that the worst off are those children who spend all of their free time on the streets, in gambling-houses, bars and nightclubs. From an early age they are without any emotional and material support, vulnerable to all sorts of abuse. Because of the lack of any positive stimulation to improve the quality of their lives these youngsters are hardly interested in any personal development. Most of the visitors are Gypsy kids, requiring a specific approach.
The main idea of the project is to offer an alternative to pubs, nightclubs, gambling centres and discotheques. They can feel at ease comingto the centre, as it resembles the environment they are used to. However, the presence of our friendly staff provides sufficient supervision so that we can prevent the abuse of drugs and alcohol and connected crime activities (stealing, vandalism, etc.). This can be achieved only by providing the possibility of a social program. It has a broad range so we can target most of the needs of the youngsters.
The educational aims are
Children and young people, by meeting, playing and working together, regardless of race or religion, learn how to relate to others, to respect each other and to tolerate individual differences.
The overall aim of our project is to change the situation of potentially criminal youth before they get involved in antisocial activities. We want to reach this aim not only by designing programmes for young people but also by creating the conditions in which the young people can prepare programmes for themselves and their friends. This is already being achieved, thanks to the hard work of previous Salesians in Teplice.
PROGRAMMEFor regular work during the year we have a games room with table tennis table, table football, electronic darts, pool table, etc. Our visitors have also chance to take part in various activities such as football, basketball, guitar playing, flute playing, computer work, and German and English language.
As well as providing free time activities we help the young people with their school subjects such as mathematics, Czech language, physics, geography, biology, etc. We also arrange special activities for the young adults who are helping us to organise the programme for kids.
Weekly activities are available from Monday to Friday. During weekends and holidays we organise outings. During the summer we run holiday camps.
Between 20 and 40 youngsters attend the Centre every afternoon.
The Salesian Youth Centre was opened at the end of February 1999 and more than 250 children and young people are registered by now. There is a primary school near the Centre, which is attended by approximately 550 children.
For further development of the work with these young people we desperately need an adequate hall for sport, dance, drama and other social activities.