It is an organisation normally associated with promoting local talent, but now it has branched out and established educational programmes for the Island's young people.

Run by the The Chewstick Foundation's youth programme coordinator Tiffany Paynter, they are aimed at increasing the level of commitment Chewstick has for empowering the individual and uniting the local community through the arts.

Miss Paynter acts as the general overseer of the educational programmes, which are currently taking place at the Berkeley Institute and the Bermuda College. Another programme is set to open at CedarBridge Academy.

Miss Paynter said: "I have dedicated my life to developing the spiritual, mental and emotional capacities of Bermuda's youth, because in the end individual character will define the future of our culture."

Although Miss Paynter began her professional relationship with The Chewstick Foundation in January, she has had a longstanding partnership with Chewstick through her performances at the Neo Griot Lounge open mic night, where she made a name for herself as a talented poet.

"I love poetry and poetry is not a luxury for me, poetry is the brightest light in the darkest places," said Miss Paynter. "To me, sharing poetry is sharing light."

The first programme is a new registered student organisation (RSO) at the Bermuda College, called 'Chewslam'.

It is a student organisation which meets weekly with an aim of learning the mechanics of poetry through storytelling and then using those tools to take their writing to the next level.

Miss Paynter said the primary aim of the RSO was to nurture young people's emotional, interpersonal and spiritual potential with the hope it may give them an opportunity to not only see the validity of other careers, but to also allow for them to realise other avenues for their creativity.

"The students will be working towards entering a slam team in an international slam poetry competition, which takes place in San Francisco in July.

"A slam team is a group of people that perform poetry in a contemporary way that engages and entertains an audience."

The second educational programme, TWIGS (True Wisdom in Growing Souls), is aimed at the secondary school level and is being held at the Berkeley Institute and in the future at CedarBridge Academy.

This after-school programme takes place over 12 weeks and is divided into three parts: story writing, storytelling and story discovering.

Miss Paynter said through the programme Chewstick's goal was to "provide a platform for voices and equip [students] with skills in order to find talents early on in life".

"TWIGS will use the model of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) a method that uses introspective techniques in problem solving which puts forth the idea that as humans we focus too much on 'what's wrong' rather than 'what's right' and that by simply stepping away from that perspective and realising and respecting individual potentials we can create a more productive environment for growth and change.

"We want to be the vessel that takes them to a place of self-actualisations and self-determination."

The third initiative 'Convictions', due to be launched in the next couple of months at the Co-ed Facility, will focus on reflecting on the Hip Hop culture and the content of popular music.

Miss Paynter added: "We are hoping these programmes create a sustainable continuum of artists that can potentially evolve themselves in our foundation."

Chewslam meets every Thursday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. TWIGS meets at Berkeley every Thursday from 3.30 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information contact 292-2439 (chew) or email info@chewstick.com.