The Isuarsivik Regional Recovery Centre is breaking ground on a new addictions treatment centre in Nunavik this month.
The official ground-breaking ceremony will take place at the end of August.
The organization is just finalizing its funding agreement with Infrastructure Canada to round out the $40.5 million it will need to build the new centre and fund the corresponding programming.
It’s received federal, provincial and regional funding for the project, which will treat trauma and addiction, according to the organization’s executive director Alicia Aragutak.
“The cost of doing nothing … that’s very, very expensive,” said Aragutak. “So having a dedicated team that sincerely believes in the project … is very key.”
Isuarsivik has been serving the 14 communities in Nunavik — the Inuit region of Northern Quebec — for 25 years.
Its current building is one of the oldest in Kuujjuaq, according to the board’s vice chair, Mary Aitchison. It’s an old U.S. military building from the 1940s.
Right now, it offers six-week inpatient treatment that blends clinical work with cultural counselling, including on-the-land activities like berry picking, fishing and hunting.
The current building lets it host nine participants at a time, and the sessions run throughout the year, alternating between all-female participants and all-male participants.
Whole family treatment
The new building is part of a larger development plan for the organization developed in 2016. It will have room for 22 participants, with room for a daycare and school room, so attendees can bring their families.
“When you come to a recovery centre, then you go back to your family. It’s very, very difficult to reintegrate yourself because you haven’t gone through the program together,” Aitchison said.
The plan shifts treatment to be more trauma-informed as well, helping attendees process trauma from colonial policies, including residential schools.
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