THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF RECREATIVE ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED BY COMMUNITY CENTERS TO SOCIAL LIFE (THE SAMPLE OF SIVAS COMMUNITY CENTER 1933-1950)

Abstract

The community centers (People’s Houses) are out-of-school institutional structures towards public education in the early Republican period. In this sense, the community centers aimed to ensure communication between the intellectual and the common people and to adopt the principles of the new regime to the people. The activities of the Community Center, which opened in 1933 in Sivas, covered all people living in the city center and the countryside. The activities of the community centers undoubtedly contributed to the spending the leisure time of individuals and also to their socio-cultural development. This article examines the contributions of recreative activities conducted by Sivas Community Center to social life in the city center and town centers in the context of the founding purposes and functions of the community centers.