AKLAVIK
Jayneta Pascal is a well-known voice in Aklavik.

Aklavik's Jayneta Pascal is using local radio to connect residents with community justice program. - photo courtesy of Jayneta Pascal

Now a community justice co-ordinator, Pascal has been using local radio as a way to connect with residents since working as a summer student supervisor with Aklavik's recreation department.

In 2012, Pascal helped summer students host a daily radio program. Students read messages and announcements from local organizations, played music and learned how to run radio equipment.

Later that year when she took on a new role as community justice co-ordinator, she continued to use the radio as a way to reach residents.

"A lot of people do go on Facebook or use e-mails or texting, but some of the elders and community members don't have access to that," she said. "Not everybody has the Internet."

Each month, Pascal creates a schedule of activities to read on the air. She is currently working on establishing weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and is also helping to facilitate a weekly "jam session" where people can meet up and play music. Donated guitars, fiddles and a bass guitar are available to anyone who wants to pick up an instrument and play. The evenings are held at the local arena or the hamlet chambers.

"Some community members bring in their own instruments as well, like a piano or harmonica. It's open to everybody," she said. "Some community members too that don't jam, they bring their sewing and just sit and listen to everybody jamming."

Pascal also invites local RCMP to join her on the air to share public service announcements, such as helmet safety and warnings about staying off of thin ice. "Sometimes the police come in to remind kids to put on a helmet when they go Ski-Dooing," she said.

To help encourage listeners, Pascal said she offers prizes donated by local business and organizations to anyone who can correctly answer trivia questions. She'll often frame the questions around a subject that had been discussed during the program.

In addition to the radio program, Pascal said she is growing her schedule of activities. She hopes to begin organizing a flea market where local vendors can sell arts and crafts or baked goods and also hopes to revamp a movie night for youth.

"We just try to keep everybody busy every day of the week," she said. "It's been going really, really well with the youth."

While it's only in the discussion phase right now, Pascal said she and other justice co-ordinators in the region have been talking about developing a community justice course to train future co-ordinators.

"We want to try and partner with Aurora College and see if there is any time or space available where we could train people who want to get into community justice," she said. "We're hoping in the future that there would be an actual program in the college."