Iqaluit (June 09/03) - In the 15 years she has worked with families in crisis, Carol Nutarasungnik has seen things that would break most people's hearts.

A new outreach program is on the verge of action to help the mending process.

How do you convince a child who has been sexually abused to trust anyone again?

This is just one difficulty Nutarasungnik faces as a community social services worker in Kimmirut.

Nutarasungnik knows this can be difficult, especially in Nunavut where families and communities are so closely knit.

But she believes a wounded child can heal. She has seen it happen many times.

"I believe family healing needs to take place first," she said in a soft voice.

"The survivors, the victims, run into a lot of emotional and mental wellbeing problems.

"Along the course of their life there is a lot of anger built up and shame -- inward anger, inward damage."

There is something she would like to see: more help for young victims of violence.

"I'd love to see a treatment centre based in Nunavut close to the communities for young people who are suffering from emotional and mental abuse.

"It's hard to work when you're all by yourself. To be isolated in a community is hard."

Help is coming, in a hands-on way.

A brand-new initiative involving youth outreach workers will be heading out to various communities in the Baffin region, said Doug Sage, director of health and social services for Iqaluit.

"These would be people who don't sit in an office and wait for people to come to them," said Sage.

"They go out to talk to kids and support them."

In Nunavut, child protection and counselling services are two "completely separate parts" of the department of health and social services.

On the child protection side there are three directors in the Baffin region assigned to various communities.

And there are social workers hired to assist child protection.

This is the area outreach workers will most likely be placed.

Child protection is closely linked with RCMP, mental health, and medical services, said Sage.

"They're all very interconnected," he said.

"When we're talking about one specific function, like child protection, it's important to remember that all the other branches of the health service get affected as well."

Cutbacks to health care in Nunavut in the last two years have forced the department to think creatively about funding and training.

One bright spot for them has been the RCMP.

Social workers have been doing some joint training over the last several months with police.

"If they're teaching their officers investigative skills," said Sage, "our social workers will learn those skills at no cost."

But don't ask Sage about statistics.

He bristled at numbers like one in four girls and one in five boys is a victim of sexual abuse.

"The kind of research that looks at that kind of quote is not reliable," he said. "We don't even know what the definition is of sexual abuse.

"I am cautioning about those kinds of studies. I don't know what they're defining as sexual abuse."

Statistics are not a focus for the department.

"I'll tell you why," Sage said. "It doesn't matter.

"It doesn't matter if the problem is 20 people per 100, or 50 people per 100. We know it's an issue.

"Rather than work on that problem, we want to work on the outcome, the solution," Sage said.

"We want healthier families. If you have healthier families, all those kinds of issues go away."

The project is now hiring two youth outreach workers for the Baffin region who should be in the field by later this summer.

For a worker like Nutarasungnik, extra help is vital to the survival of her community.

"Personally I think it depends on a community itself," she said.

"You've got to have compassion," she added softly.

"And understanding for the hurting. That's what I always believe."