ARVIAT
While statistics show sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are decreasing in the Baffin and Kitikmeot regions, they continue to rise in the Kivalliq.

Jessica Kwan. a student from the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, is helping the Arviat Wellness Centre move forward with youth sexual health programming. - photo courtesy of Jamie Bell

In Arviat, this is the case despite several years of working with youth on developing healthy relationships and a Government of Nunavut sexual health campaign - and the Arviat Health Committee is concerned.

"For a number of years our child and youth outreach worker has been running workshops in the community around healthy relationships for adolescents. We also have a youth conference every year. We ran a conference around healthy relationships. It's something we've been trying to promote," said committee member Shirley Tagalik.

Tagalik notes the GN stats imply the numbers for STIs are down in the other two regions as a result of its I Respect Myself campaign.

"They were associating this as if it were a result of this great promotional program that they put out. But, in the Kivalliq, STI stats skyrocketed. So why are they going down in those two regions and in our region they're going up and up and up?" said Tagalik. "Obviously the uptake of messaging is not strong in our region."

Tagalik says it could be for a variety of reasons: messages are not well-presented, it's not the right kind of messaging or it's not targeting a very youthful population group.

So the committee has become even more proactive.

"We invited a researcher in to do some work around this. We asked him to focus on the youth, and to find out what they know about sexual health, what they want to know about sexual health, where they get their information about sexual health and how they would prefer to receive their information about sexual health," said Tagalik.

"We also wanted to know if the work we've been doing around healthy relationship has had any impact."

The final report is being completed now; however, early indicators are clear that the youth are looking for information but they aren't finding it in the way that they would like it.

As a result, the committee invited Jessica Kwan, a practicum student from the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, to help.

Kwan is working with an advisory group made up of people who work in public health or with youth to design a series of workshops to be implemented over the summer.

The Arviat Wellness Centre, which is spearheading the project, is a website where the hamlet council's health committee can share various community-based projects.

Projects are delivered through different facilities and venues in the community.

"We're really hoping to engage some of the young people in building their voice around these issues and giving us some solid information about the kinds of programs that they would like to see and the ways they would like to be able to access information and support," said Tagalik.

The committee is also in contact with the Northwest Territories-based group FOXY (Fostering Open eXpression among Youth) to bring their program to the community as a pilot site in Nunavut.

Last December, FOXY won the entire $1 million prize from Arctic Inspiration Prize for their innovative work with youth in the areas of sexual health, sexuality and relationships.

Asked if the youth are responsive to all this attention and effort, Tagalik says yes.

"We're very fortunate. We've had a lot of strong youth programming and opportunities for youth. I think that youth are quite receptive to engage with us when we're asking for focus groups or people to come forward to talk to a researcher. So we've had a very, very positive response."

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