Nunavut shelter works to help women stay at home

The living area of the Kataujaq safe shelter is pictured here. The centre offers accommodation to women and children who are victims of abuse in Rankin Inlet and throughout the Kivalliq region. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

RANKIN INLET—The beds at the Kataujaq safe shelter are all neatly made.

There are no clients this Friday morning at Rankin Inlet’s women’s shelter—the only such shelter in the Kivalliq region.

The centre, which first opened in 1985, is run by the community’s Kataujaq Society, which also operates a nearby daycare with the same name.

The seven-bed facility is spick and span. There’s a playroom for children, a large, open living room and a kitchen area.

It’s located in an unmarked, nondescript house in the community that is no different from other homes, except for its security cameras and automatically locking doors.

Kataujaq takes in women and their children from the community, from elsewhere in the Kivalliq region, and occasionally from the Baffin region, when resources in that region are overwhelmed.

The centre’s executive director, Joyce Kent, said she doesn’t have statistics on the actual number of clients who used the shelter last year, but she said Kataujuq was only 12 per cent full in 2017.

That’s a huge drop from the previous year, when she said the shelter was almost at 100 per cent of its capacity.

That could be due to a local push to have abusers vacate the family home, when the abuser is a woman’s husband or male partner.

“What we try to do is thoroughly assess a situation and do what’s best for the family,” Kent said.

“But we encourage the abuser to leave the home, so the family can stay in their routine. When kids are pulled out of the home, it traumatizes them.”

It’s not always easy to make that happen, Kent said, but police might be able to negotiate certain bail conditions for the accused if they agree to leave the family home for a period.

With recent hearings of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that took place in Rankin Inlet, the community and territory have heard a number of stories about the violence women face.

Kent wants local families to know “we’re here.”

“I think there are resources in the community, if you need them,” she said.

Another important service she encourages in cases of domestic abuse is spousal counselling, offered through Rankin Inlet’s Pulaarvik Kablu Friendship Centre.

The director is Kataujaq’s only full-time position. The shelter employs a handful of part-time staff who work at the centre evenings and overnight.

All of its clients are referred through social services or through the RCMP.

The centre is funded through a contribution agreement with the Department of Family Services.