Meet and greet for mental health
Open house attracts large crowd in Rankin Inlet
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
RANKIN INLET
Offering a few great prizes and a lot of useful information is a good way to attract a crowd in Rankin Inlet.
With the help of the local business community, staff members took advantage of just such a combination to hold an open house at Kivalliq Counselling and Support Services (KCSS) this past month.
Executive director Noel Kaludjak said the open house was a great way to let people know about programs KCSS has to offer, as well as meet new counselling manager Bonnie Almon.
He said there were also some people who had no clue where the KCSS office was located.
"There were a number of people who came in to ask if they were in the right place because it looked like somebody's house to them," said Kaludjak.
"So a lot more people know where our location is now, and they also know who all our friendly staff members are.
"It was nice for so many to meet Bonnie (Almon), which gave her the chance to shake hands and get to know some of the people in the community.
"It was really good public relations for us and people were happy to come in and see where we work, and, you never know, somebody who was there may need our help one day and now they know where to go and who to talk to."
Kaludjak said the open house was helped be a success by the generosity of the business community.
He said KCSS are very grateful to Calm Air for donating a pair of regional passes as the main draw prize.
"We gave out more than 640 draw tickets during the day.
"There were some given out that were taken to elders, or people who can't get around very well, but we had about 600 people walk through our door in one day.
"It could be quite difficult for me, at times, when I first started here, so I hope this will make the transition a little easier for Bonnie.
"We didn't see anything wrong with holding draws so people would come see where we work and get a better understanding of what we do, so we decided to ask Calm Air, Umingmak and Ivalu to provide prizes and they came though for us, which we really, really appreciate."
