‘It’s suicide prevention’: Sanikiluaq getting ready for new community centre

All teenagers need to be able to express themselves in a way that doesn’t hurt them or anyone else, says Isaac Mensah.

Isaac Mensah, director of operations at Ubluriak Society, says programs the group runs are a form of “suicide prevention.” (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)

“You see that youth, whenever they are going through hard times, they don’t speak or express their emotions to someone,” he said.

And he would know. Mensah is the director of operations at Uluriak Society, a Sanikiluaq non-profit that focuses on cultural programming for young people and adults.

Mensah says he believes the unwillingness of teens to open up is causing Nunavut’s youth suicide crisis — and the society is trying to fix it.

Ubluriak’s eight-member team is running sewing programs where participants get a chance to craft mitts and parkas for free. All visitors to the centre can also get a free snack or coffee.

Soon, however, the group plans to expand its programs.

For the past year, they have been renovating their home which is a small one-storey building that formerly housed the hamlet office in the community of about 1,000 people. When renovations are complete in February, it will become a community centre.

“I wish you could see the before and after — it’s really unbelievable,” Mensah said.

The space already has about a dozen computers still in their boxes, which anyone in town will be able to use to create or update resumes, search for jobs, or just learn new things.

The centre will also have a 3D printer and Sanikiluaq’s first music recording studio.

“It would be another form of expressing their feeling. It’s suicide prevention,” Mensah said of the studio.

The centre already hosts the community’s radio station, so songs that local singers and musicians write and record can later be broadcasted on the radio.

“One way of dealing with your emotions is letting the whole world know what you’re going through. And music is a way to do it,” Mensah said.

With the additional services, the centre’s staff is set to grow to about 14 members from the current eight.

Sanikiluaq radio, located in Ubluriak Society’s building, will broadcast some of the songs created by local musicians in the future music studio. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)

Mensah — who has been with Ubluriak for the past three years and previously resided in Iqaluit and Cambridge Bay — believes the bigger centre should be run by locals.

“I’m very honest with people here,” he said.

“I’m not here forever. I will leave after a few years to do same work in other parts of Nunavut, so the community will have to run it. Until then, I will do my best to help.”

Mensah added his hope is to one day construct a bigger building in Sanikiluaq which, along with the programs, could host a shelter where people could go in times of need.