Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Friday, February 19, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The Northwest Territories has eleven new community wellness workers.

Four graduates are from Yellowknife and the rest are from communities across the Territory.

"I took it on as an opportunity," Alice Zoe-Chocolate from Behchoko said. Zoe-Chocolate also was the graduating classes' valedictorian.

Bernadette Rabesca-Apples will be returning to Gameti to work with her community.

"It's very important for me, I always put my community first," Rabesca-Apples said. Before taking on the position she said she had been volunteering in the community.

The course provided them with a Community Wellness certificate from Keyano College, with help from the Tree of Peace.

Instructors from Keyano came up to Yellowknife to offer the program.

The graduates are ready to return to their communities to "prevent violence and suicide, those types of issues that impact so greatly in communities," said Marnie Bell the manager of primary community services with the GNWT department of Health and Social Services said.

"It's putting a balance on what we can offer," she said of the graduates.

"It's absolutely essential. It's making our communities stronger."

Angus McKay will be returning to Hay River to apply what he's learned in the course.

"I look forward to helping someone with what I've learned," McKay said. He became involved with the program because he was volunteering at the drug and alcohol centre in Hay River.

"I'd like to do my part as a community member," Zoe-Chocolate said.