The Warwick Community Education programme was started to address the problem with youngsters in that parish.

Twenty three years later the programme encompasses the whole Island and the demand is so great for some courses that there simply isn't enough space to accommodate the need.

"Right now we are busting at the seams, we have nowhere else to go for computer classes," said Executive Officer Patricia Chapman.

"We use every single lab in the Government schools and use every single gym in Government schools. Sometimes at Spice Valley there are no classrooms left in the evening to use. We had to negotiate with Warwick Academy to use their facilities at one point.

"We've gone from the middle and senior schools to the primary school buildings. We just need the space, but of course we can't use their desks, because they are fairly low. We have to use their gymnasiums and fields because we offer dog obedience and need a field.

"As far as outgrowing ourselves in terms of facilities, yes, the possibility exists because we have nowhere else to go to put classes. We were paying rent to such places at Club 40 to do the salsa classes - we have numbers in the 30s and 40s there - because the school gyms were already used up."

Eugene Vickers, the Warwick Community School Co-ordinator, has been involved with the programme since its inception and has seen it grown in leaps and bounds over the last two decades.

It has spread out to other centres in Sandys, St. George's and CedarBridge Academy and now classes are offered seven days a week, with tennis, tiling, squash, archery, organic vegetable gardening and beginners golf taking place on weekends. It is, what Mrs. Chapman calls, a "very comprehensive, year-round programme".

Mr. Vickers has been around to see the growth. "It started from the problems in Warwick and was the brainchild of the Government of the day when Quinton Edness represented the parish and was also the Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs," explained Mr. Vickers.

"The intention was that it should grow to cover the Island, I must say the leadership of Mrs. Chapman has really fulfilled the needs. We started with just 34 classes and now we're running at Spice Valley alone, 107 classes.

"All the other schools are running around 30 to 40 classes. CedarBridge has about 30 classes and climbing and Berkeley has about 12 classes. One of the greatest demands is for basic math and basic English, the main thing that young people should have. We have courses all the way from gardening to computer programmes, anything you can think of. We have six trades for anybody who wants to become a handyman."

Over the years expatriates have taken advantage of the classes being offered and more Bermudians are also urged to do the same. Mrs. Chapman noted that no course costs more than $100, making it cost effective and convenient with its evening classes.

"A new course we're offering is Hotel Hospitality," said Mr. Vickers. "If you go into hotels you will see foreigners, but a lot of young people in particular don't know what the hotels have to offer.

`The community school is a different concept from most learning programmes in that we have hands-on mainly and it is not a stress-type programme, you can set your own pace."

Students must attend eight of the ten classes in order to obtain a certificate of completion.

The one irony in the Community Education and Development Programme is Randy Horton was the Principal at the former Warwick Secondary School when that school made its facilities available for the programme when it was launched. He is now the Minister of Community Affairs and Sports, still giving his support to the programme which involves the whole community.

"The group of them who went up to Flint, Michigan where the model was started - the council members and community activists who did their training - and piloted it at Warwick Secondary with Randy Horton," explained Mrs. Chapman.

"I also want to give acknowledgement to the staff for giving 100 percent because I couldn't do it without them, as well as our Director, Grace Rawlins, whom we bounce ideas off."