Minority group children and their activities in Salesian Centres in Teplice and České Budějovice

In our free time, we pursue activities where we experience delight, pleasure, entertainment and relaxation. The choice is based on our free will. The key functions of leisure time are psychological, social, therapeutic and economic. What is specific about leisure time of children and youth is that pedagogues can encourage them. Leisure time is at the same time a risk factor. The ever increasing number of drug and gambling machine addicted young people shows the potential serious consequences of neglect of leisure-time pedagogical encouragement. Salesian Youth Centres provide a great opportunity for pedagogues to encourage minority group children (especially Roma children in the Czech Republic) in their leisure-time. The idea behind the centres is to offer leisure-time activities for such {\clqq}different`` young people looking for different forms of activities, respecting their social structure, i.e. a natural team in which they unite, and offering them an environment where they can socialise in a friendly atmosphere and feel free. Despite their continuously increasing number, the Roma population is a minority showing considerable differences from other nations and nationalities. They are different in terms of race and their ethnic attributes, they live in considerable poverty and have a completely different lifestyle. The objective of my Baccalaureate thesis is to find out what conditions Salesian Youth Centres in Teplice and České Budějovice create for purposeful opportunities for leisure-time activities for minority group children, whether the offer is sufficient and how the mentality of this ethnic group is taken into account. I also wanted to find out what activities are prioritised by the children and why. I have developed 3 assumptions, where no. 1 is: {\clqq}Most of the activities are affected by the mentality of the clients who take part in developing the programme``, assumption no. 2: {\clqq}Minority group children are more active in integrating into occasional and spontaneous interest activities rather than regular interest activities``, and assumption no. 3: {\clqq}Minority group children integrate mostly into interest, cultural and sports activities. They rarely integrate into natural science and craftsmanship.`` A quantitative method of inquiry was applied to collect the required data on the specific topics. I chose 2 techniques, i.e. an inquiry focusing on minority group children and a controlled interview with leisure-time pedagogues. To confirm or disprove the assumptions, I had to evaluate all the inquiry questions and those in the controlled interview. My research has confirmed assumption No. 1 and 3, and disproves assumption no.2