had found employment, hospice and homes for safeguarding youngsters, offering arts, skilled trades and even agricultural schools.
Institutions formally set up for the traditional correction of youngsters do not appear among the suggested measures.
As far as the running of the different institutions was concerned, Don Bosco foresaw the direct action of private individuals, with close cooperation from public support, buildings, equipment and financial aid. Don Bosco concluded with a fourth paragraph destined to offer foreseeable results based on his own experience of 35 years spent championing the cause of the abandoned and at risk youth When Don Bosco wrote to secular Ministers, he intentionally kept silent on the content of the educational system, especially as far as religion was concerned. The only term connected with the church in the document is the word 'catechism' and this is used only to indicate that it is exclusively a tool to provide moral nourishment suited for poor children of the working classes.814
Naturally in Don Bosco's mind the term 'catechism' was associated with all those v alues, earthly values included, which focused on reason and loving kindness which together with the Catholic religion could
have contributed to the gradual human and Christian redemption of the young at risk: regaining the
meaning in life, faith in the pow er of love, a desire to work, finding happiness, the resolve and ability
to inspire attitudes and behaviours in line with the principles of moral dignity and social solidarity.
According to the oft -used formula, Don Bosco's aim to change youngsters 'at ri sk' and 'risky' into 'upright citizens and good Christians'.
814Il sistema preventivo (1878), RSS4 (1985) 302.