Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Kitikmeot Region (Apr 17/00) - Nine successful graduates of the community support worker program at Nunavut Arctic College are just itching to get to work in the Kitikmeot.

Take Gjoa Haven resident Pauline Aqilriaq, for example. Forced to leave her home community to participate in the Taloyoak-based 24-week diploma program, she said she could hardly wait to get out into the field.

"I look forward to it," said Aqilriaq.

"It's a new beginning for me. I never worked as a community support worker before," she said.

Hoping to find a job with the Department of Health and Social Services, Aqilriaq said that being put in close contact with elders was her favourite part of the job.

"Running games with the elders, I really like that," she said.

Her new job, however, won't all be fun and games. As a community support worker, Aqilriaq faces some pretty tough tasks.

"They'll provide basic personal care services to elderly or disabled persons. They come in and help with bathing or cleaning the house if the person can't do it themselves. They also assist with cooking and grocery shopping," said Brenda Ferros, the instructor of the program, about the graduates.

Ferros, who is responsible for teaching her students the various jobs associated with caring for children with physical, mental and emotional special needs, said the program emphasized the need to teach residents to care for other members of their community.

"It trains local people in the community (who are) interested in working in home care and with disabled people in a variety of community projects," she said.

"It was extremely successful. The girls learned quite a bit -- the book stuff and they grew personally. A lot of personal development happened during this program."

Colleague Vicki Bobinski noted that this development greatly contributed to the overall success rate of the program.

"This is the fifth time we've run the community support worker program in the region and once again, we've graduated almost a full class," said Bobinski, the acting director of the college in the Kitikmeot region.

"This program has a very high success rate. It's the nature of the program, the support they learn to give to each other. They really model it throughout the year by helping each other. They really struggle and they learn to support their communities by supporting each other," she said.

That kind of strong support pulled Kugaaruk's (Pelly Bay) Mary Kayasark through. Away from her husband and five children for most of the six-month course, Kayasark added that her determination helped her graduate.

"It was hard, but when you want to do something, you have to do it," said Kayasark, who plans to take a few weeks off to enjoy her family before leaping into employment with social services.

"I really liked this program and the people and I had wanted to take it for a long time, but it was always away from home," she said.

For Jennifer Ogruk of Taloyoak, it was a matter of seeing all of the people who needed help with their daily tasks in her community.

"I learned a lot of things for the elders and the disabled," she said.

"Now I know how to help the community with its needs."