i THE NATIONAL YOUTH AND SPORTS POLICY DOCUMENT ...

period of time allocated to leisure time activities and the quality of activities carried outduring this period.In today’s society, spending leisure time efficiently has positive effects on individuals,especially young people. In developed countries, it is widely accepted that the best way tohelp young people to adopt national, moral, social, cultural, artistic and humanitarian values isto spend leisure time efficiently and that leisure time activities also constitute a part of theeducation. The fact that young people do not spend their leisure time efficiently results in theemergence of social, economic and psychological problems. The participation of youngpeople in activities satisfying their interests is both beneficial and necessary for their physical,psychological and social development.Among the public institutions planning and organizing leisure time activities foryoung people in Turkey, the youth centres under the Ministry of Youth and Sports come first.When developments in recent years are observed, it is found that there is an increase in thenumber of youth centres and their activities.Policy-making by the government on leisure time activities which help young peopleacquire qualifications such as socialization, active citizenship, responsibility, avoidance ofharmful habits and time management bears great importance. Policies to be developed inorder to remove the obstacles in front of spending leisure time efficiently and to increase thequality and diversity of the activities to be conducted will help our young people to becomemore social, enterprising, healthy, positive thinking individuals who are committed to nationaland moral values.POLICIES1. Increasing the number of centres, activities, and places young people can spendtheir free time, and extend such services to more people.Targets• To generalize youth centres young people can reach easily and which arephysically available to spend their leisure time activities.• To enable more young people to benefit from the youth centres by improvingthe physical conditions of the current youth centres.• To organize activities for young people in rural areas to enable them to spendtheir leisure time effectively by means of public institutions.• To increase the number of facilities where sportive activities to spend leisuretime are performed.40