Youth introduced to service agencies
Education by exposure for students at East Three
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, December 12, 2013
INUVIK
It's never too early to introduce children to the health services available to them.
Crystal Navratil, a community health representative with the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Authority, was one of the health workers on hand for a Mental Health Awareness Fair at East Three Secondary School Dec. 4. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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That was one of the clear messages directed at East Three students from both wings of the school during a Wellness Fair Dec. 4, at the school.
While this fair was directed primarily at mental health awareness, a variety of local service providers made sure it was also an overarching introduction to health generally.
Approximately a dozen organizations had booths set up during the fair, including the Inuvik Youth Centre, Healthy Family Program, the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Authority and Community Wellness.
Students, who were passing through grade by grade, stopped to ask lots of questions.
Ali McConnell, the new executive director of the Inuvik Youth Centre, was one of the organizers of the event.
"The idea of this is to give youth at the school the opportunity to explore the different services available to them, and to meet with the different workers that are there to help them," she said.
The event was sponsored by the mental health awareness working group, which is comprised of representatives of many of the same organizations attending the fair.
"We have passports that the students are going around with that have questions we've prepared for them to get more information from each service, and they just go from booth to booth, talk to the different people and find out what's available."
Shirley Elias, the Community Wellness representative, said "we're teaching (students) that come to our table about the resources in our community.
"We think this is the best way of teaching people in our community about our agents and where they're located. It's important to know your resources as a community member so you'll know where to go when some day you need to."
The common questions being presented to Elias included "where is the Community Wellness program, and what is the Community Wellness counsellor?"
The program operates out of the Arctic Family Centre, Elias said, with the main office in the Greenland Building.
"The kids are not really sure of what our counselling program is to ask questions. They don't really know about mental health, they're too young yet. It's just that awareness we're trying to build. I break it down and tell them, 'This is what we do in our culture for healthy family values.'"
Grade 7 student Julienne Chipesia said "this is really good.
"You get to learn about different stuff as you go to the booths, and now you know it. I just like how they put this up every year."
