City to create social services information centre

DENISE RIDEOUT

The City of Iqaluit wants to create a referral centre, a kind of one-stop information place that would direct people to health, employment, housing and education services.

Iqaluit offers a host of services, from an Alcoholics Anonymous program to a homeless shelter to a food bank. But information about these services is scattered and often difficult to find.

“There are some services in our community that the residents don’t know about. People need information on that and they could get it at the information centre,” said Elisapi Davidee, a consultant the city has hired to help get the referral centre off the ground.

The referral centre is one of the initiatives set out in the city’s “Continuum of Care,” an action plan to battle homelessness and other social problems in Iqaluit.

On Oct. 5, Davidee hosted a meeting to tell residents about the referral centre project. She envisions a place that caters to many needs.

“It can be used by people on social services. It can be used by the homeless to go there in the day. It can be used by people with addictions to substances. It can be used as a learning centre,” Davidee, speaking in Inuktitut, said to the 12 people gathered at the meeting.

“This place could be used by the homeless to go have a warm cup of coffee. There would be a laundry room to wash their clothes. They could get help in there,” she said.

Iqaluit’s referral centre could be modelled on the Inuit community centre in Ottawa, Tungasuvvingat Inuit, she added.

Reepa Evic Carleton, a counsellor who has worked at the Ottawa centre since 1991, travelled to Iqaluit to give the city ideas for creating its own centre. “I would like to help and assist you,” said Evic Carleton, who is originally from Pangnirtung.

Tungasuvvingat Inuit offers a host of services and programs to Inuit living in Ottawa, ranging from a lunch program and transitional housing for the homeless to a family resource centre, an employment centre for Inuit in Ottawa and helping Inuit adjust to southern, urban living.

Tungasuvvingat Inuit is the place Inuit head to when they arrive in Ottawa, Evic Carleton said.

A similar place would go a long way in Iqaluit, she said. “I support you in your program. You are trying to bring something to life that is needed in many communities.”

Iqaluit residents attending the meeting came out in full support of the referral centre project.

Susan Springs told the participants that she’s long believed Iqaluit needs a place that offers advice and information on social programs. “We have to focus on developing and empowering our people,” she said.

Elder Okee Kunuk applauded the city’s efforts to help its residents.

“There are many problems people face every day. It would be good to have a little place they can call their own. Yes, we need a place like this in Iqaluit,” Kunuk said.

Iqaluit Mayor John Matthews said it’s a difficult task for city council to tackle social problems.

“I think it’s difficult because we don’t know how to deal with it. We don’t feel comfortable dealing with it. It’s much easier to talk about loose dogs or the roads than it is to talk about homelessness,” he said.

The Continuum of Care program is the city’s attempt to come up with some solutions.

While the drive is there to create the referral centre, the funding isn’t – at least, not yet. Davidee said her next task is applying to federal and territorial programs for funding to lease a building and hire employees.

The mayor said the city will help back the project.

“We will open the purse strings at some point. We have to. It’s a community issue,” Matthews said.