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Community centres (Community Center in USA) are public locations where members of a community may gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within the greater community. Examples of community centres for specific groups include: Lesbian and Gay community centres, Christian community centres, Islam ic community centres, Jewish community centres, Youth Club s etc. SCHOOLS AS SOCIAL CENTERS: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Early forms of community centres were based in School s providing facilties to inner city communities out of school hours. An early celebrated example of this is to be found in Rochester , New York from 1907 . Edward J. Ward , a Presbyterian minister, joined the Extension Department at the University Of Wisconsin , organising the Wisconsin Bureau Of Civic And Social Development . By 1911 they organised a US -wide conference oin schools as social centres. Despite concerns expressed by politicians and public official that they might provide a focus for alternative political and social activity, the idea was successful. In 1916 with the foundation of the National Community Center Association the term ''Community Center'' was generally used in the US. By 1918 there were community centres in 107 US cities, and in 240 cities by 1924 . By 1930 there werenearly 500 centers with more than four million people regularly attending. The fiirst of these was Public School 63, located in then Lower East Side . Clinton Childs , one of the organisers described it as "''A Community organized about some center for its own political and social welfare and expression; to peer into its own mind and life, to discover its own social needs and then to meet them, whether they concern the political field, the field of health, of recreation, of education, or of industry; such community organization is necessary if democratic society is to succeed and endure''". Another pioneer of community centres was Mary Parker Follett , who saw community cnetres as playing a major part in her concept of Community Development and Democracy seen through individuals organising themselves into neighbourhood groups, and attending to people's needs, desires and aspirations. There are also community centres for a specific purpose, but serving the whole community, such as an Arts Centre . |
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