INUVIK - Inuvik's Justice Committee is starting a new program to help families deal with competing demands from multiple social welfare organizations.

Linda Casson, left, program officer with the National Crime Prevention Centre, discusses the Family Group Conferencing Model of Intervention with Alana Mero, chair of the Inuvik Justice Committee. - Aaron Beswick/NNSL photo

On Dec. 2 the federal government announced $1,338,991 over five years to begin the Family Group Conferencing Model of Intervention. Two positions will be created, a family co-ordinator and a youth co-ordinator, to help families negotiate their paths to recovery.

"Some families feel overwhelmed by the competing demands placed on them," said Justice Committee chair Alana Mero.

Those families may be dealing with the justice system, schools, social workers and the housing corporation among others. The role of the new positions will be to help families create a plan to meet the demands of those organizations, advocate on the family's behalf and co-ordinate the work of the various social welfare organizations with which the family is involved.

"Having someone who thinks they know your problems is very different than knowing them yourself," said Mero.

There is also money for the Land Program, through which entire families are taken out on the land with elders. On the excursions families are taught traditional skills and about their culture's concept of the family.

"With residential schools, a lot of people lost that knowledge of how a family works," said Mero. "Every culture has a way of a family operating with the basic rule, across cultures, of keeping children safe. Because without children, there is no future."

The program is based upon one began in New Zealand during the 1980s, where the Maori people's culture had been traumatized by European colonization. Mero said there are strong similarities between the Maori experience in New Zealand and that of Canada's aboriginal people.

"In New Zealand the number of children and youth in care and the number of families in conflict with the law dropped dramatically," said Mero. "This is the first time we've tried this here."

According to the press release announcing the program, it will target 60 to 90 children and youth at risk from six to 18 years old, along with their families, in Inuvik.

"Crime prevention is a focal point of our efforts to strengthen community health in the Northwest Territories," said Jackson Lafferty, NWT Minister of Justice. "Today's funding announcement supports our work and commitment to grass roots prevention programs that serve to improve the long-term well-being of our population."

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