Saqijuq project expands to second Nunavik community

The Saqijuq program, which works to develop healthy lifestyles and curb addiction-related crimes, has launched in a second Nunavik community.

“Kangirsuk was chosen to be the second community for Saqijuq to expand in and we are pleased to announce their involvement in the initiative,” said Minnie Grey, co-chair of the board of governors for Saqijuq and executive director of the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, in a March 9 news release.

Saqijuq, meaning a change in the wind’s direction, first launched in Puvirnituq in 2014.

Through the program, youth and people at risk attend on-the-land camps, and learn from elders how to hunt and fish. The goal of the program is to keep people out of the justice system, Grey told Nunatsiaq News.

The Kangirsuk project will be headed up by team lead Maggie Annahatak. Annahatak has taken part in Saqijuq meetings in Puvirnituq to familiarize herself with the program, said Navarana Kleist, project manager for Saqijuq.

And the Kangirsuk program, under Annahatak, is now gaining momentum, said Kleist. The organization will soon be looking to hire educators to work with Annahatak and the program’s clients in Kangirsuk.

“With the backing of partners, support staff and everyone that has been involved with Saqijuq from the beginning, we are certain that great things will continue to happen,” Kleist said.

In the pilot community of Puvirnituq, Saqijuq has grown to include an alternative justice program.

The aim of Nitsiq, the Nunavik Wellness Court, is to rehabilitate offenders with drug and alcohol addictions, rather than criminalize them.

Certain offenders, after accepting responsibility for their crime and any addictions that led to the crime, can opt for the wellness court, which includes treatment programs, over the criminal justice system.

One client went through the system in October and another may also go through wellness court in the short term, Aileen MacKinnon, Saqijuq’s coordinator, told councillors during Kativik Regional Government meetings on Feb. 26.

“It’s a way for people who may need treatment more than jail to have that treatment recognized,” said MacKinnon.

Another project under Saqijuq in Puvirnituq is its mobile intervention team. Made up of a social worker and a Kativik Regional Police Force officer, the teams can respond and de-escalate situations that would otherwise require a full police response.

Since the program launched in May, they’ve taken 344 calls, MacKinnon said.

“That’s 344 calls where the police were able to leave them alone to handle the intervention,” said MacKinnon.

Of people involved in those calls, MacKinnon said only one per cent had to be detained—or no more than four people.

“That could be that there was just no other choice at that point … or they did do a criminal act,” MacKinnon said. “In a lot of situations the MIT are able to handle it on their own and police can handle their own calls and there are less calls going to social services after hours.”

Staffing has been a challenge for the team, but MacKinnon said that it would be fully staffed by April.

And as for the program expanding across Nunavik, MacKinnon said Saqijuq’s next stop after Kangirsuk will be Akulivik.