Young women learn to live and lead in CamBay

Kakak Kaniak looks on as her grandmother Mary Kaniak, an expert seamstress, helps her with a kamik she’s making. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Kakak Kaniak takes a whiff of perfume during a session on makeup, which all participants in Cambridge Bay’s “Life Management” program took as part of their preparation for getting out in the work force. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Ermie LeBlanc, coordinator of Cambridge Bay’s “Life Management” program, looks forward to seeing the participants’ personal growth. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Participants in the “Life Management” program in Cambridge Bay cut out materials they will use for their own personal portfolio, a project that includes pictures, work samples, life stories, drawings, and other documents, and can be used to gain college credits.

CAMBRIDGE BAY— Jerilyn “Kakak” Kaniak closely watches as her granny, expert seamstress Mary Kaniak, stitches away.

They spend every Wednesday afternoon sewing together at Cambridge Bay’s May Hakongak library and cultural centre now, on a pair of kamiks.

This traditional activity flows from a six-month course whose goal is help young women, 17 to 30, get the job preparation and work experience they need to move ahead in life.

The program, called “Life Management,” lets Kakak, 23, reconnect with her traditional side.

At the same time, the program also lets her link up with new people and personal ambitions.

From Monday to Friday, Kakak comes to the Elders Palace where she and 12 other young women spend the day learning the skills to make them leaders to themselves — and in life.

One activity involved learning how to apply makeup, important if you want to apply for a job and look your best.

But there’s lots of harder work that goes on, too.

Last month, the group worked on developing a portfolio, a project that includes pictures, work samples, life stories, drawings, and other documents, which are kept in a binder.

This portfolio shows what knowledge, skills and abilities these young women can use when they look for jobs, and it can also gain them academic credit at Nunavut Arctic College.

“It helps me choose what I want to do,” Kakak said of the exercise, which also helped display what she had accomplished so far in life.

Kakak, who left school in Grade 11, has a four-year-old child.

The new program now has her eager to continue her schooling.

It’s also been a big encouragement for getting her out of bed in the morning to see the others in the program.

“I’m thankful for the group of ladies I am with. They’re friendly, supportive and fun to be with,” Kakak said.

Over the course of the six-month program, Kakak and the others will take a deep look at themselves.

And they will develop critical thinking or ihumaliutuq, and become aware of their identity as adults, said program coordinator Ermie LeBlanc.

“They want that grounding,” she said.

In addition to starting portfolios, they’ve also taken first aid training and graduated from a food handlers’ course at Nunavut Arctic College.

During a recent week-long workshop on parenting after violence, they looked at the situation of children who have seen violence and learned how they could be helpful to their children.

“But in order to look that they also had to look at themselves and their [own] experience,” LeBlanc said.

Program participants are spending this week in a healing circle workshop. Next week, they receive training in “health relationships and sexual health.”

The program has nick-named April as “employer month.” Everyone in the program has already interviewed women role models in Cambridge Bay about their jobs. Now these women will come to the Elders Palace to meet the entire group.

Participants will also finish their portfolios and write a resumé as preparation for two six-week work placements or one 12-week placement, which will start in May.

LeBlanc hopes all the young women will have “an action plan” for their future when the program wraps up at the end of July.

Meanwhile, LeBlanc said she’s encouraged to see growth of the young women, who are living their lives and changing their routines “in order to become more productive individuals and happier with themselves.”

Some have taken stands in relationships and are getting the help they need, Leblanc said.

The program is “real genuine development,” she said. “They can be the people they want to be.”

Throughout the “Life Management” program, participants receive a $10-an-hour salary, but money isn’t what draws them to this program: they want to be there.

A couple of the women in the program have four children — and often they have to juggle several babysitters every day to come.

The program started with 18, and has lost five so far, but LeBlanc hopes to see all the remaining women finish.

“The initiative comes from them, we provide the environment to see lots of things happen. It’s remarkable to see the tenacity once they get it,” she said.

The Cambridge Bay Community Wellness Centre received more than $387,000 in federal “Skills Link” money to support the “Life Management” project, the third of its kind that’s been offered in Cambridge Bay.

When Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq announced the program’s funding last January, she acknowledged that “for many young Canadians, making the transition to the job market is a challenge, especially in today’s environment.”

“That’s why our government is creating opportunities for youth to succeed through support for initiatives like this youth employment project.”

On March 8, International Womens Day, participants in the “Life Management” program in Cambridge Bay held a celebration with the seven elder women who teach them sewing, They gave each elder a flower and spoke with them, thanks to the help of interpreter Mary Avalak. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)