136 Early forms of community centres in the United States were based in schools providing facilities to inner city communities out of school hours. The first example is to be found in Rochester, NY, in 1907. Find some information about the community centres in the area where you live. Are they public or private? What do they offer? Do you take part in parish activities? What does your local parish offer? ONLINE RESOURCES Prisoner rehabilitation in Italy to cope with: affrontare to gather: riunirsi parish: (qui) oratorio recovery: guarigione secular: laico to undergo: sottoporsi a underlying: sottostante withdrawal: astinenza 276 SOCIETy HElpS PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES AGENCIES, COMMUNITY AND REHABILITATION CENTRES Other forms of social services for the population are public social services agencies, community centres, and rehabilitation centres. Public social services agencies Public social services agencies are organised at city council level and operate through a network of social workers. They deal with welfare and remedial services by identifying the right institution to address the specific need of applicants. Community centres A community centre , or community hall, is a public or private location where the members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. The centre may be open to the whole community or to a specific group of people. Public centres are usually financed and given freely to the community by local authorities, while private centres may be either religious, like in the case of parish activities , or secular, as in the case of youth or senior clubs. The main uses of community centres Community centres are often used for: volunteering activities; public meetings on various issues, including conferences and debates; public and private celebrations such as weddings or birthdays; courses and manual activities; sports activities; entertainment (music, cinema, etc.). Rehabilitation centres Rehabilitation is the action of restoring someone to health or normal life through training and therapy after imprisonment, illness, or addiction. In the case of imprisonment, rehabilitation activities are organised when people are still in prison and they normally refer to studying, learning a jobskill, working inside the prison, or having a special permission to work outside. As regards illness, it may include people who have suffered a brain injury, people who suffer from a disability after an injury and need physical therapy, and people who have had other types of trauma which have resulted in them being unable to carry on with their life before the accident. In this case, people will spend time in therapy in the rehabilitation centre and undergo treatments and therapies until they can carry out their everyday activities without assistance. Drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres In the case of drug and alcohol rehabilitation, the centre is a clinic that provides: medical treatment and psychiatric care in order to assist the individual in identifying the real cause of their addiction, and discovering any underlying mental health issues that may have led to it; ways to cope with the symptoms of withdrawal with the final goal of a complete recovery.