A small town in Quebec, Canada called Kangiqsualujjuaq - a primarily Inuit town with a population of 900 people - has instituted a new program called the Qarmaapik Family House. The program was developed in response to news that the town had more children in foster care than any other community in Nunavik. The mayor of Kangiqsualujjuaq believed that the problem lay in the fact that the child protective service staff were all White and were gaining little progress with an entirely Inuit population. “Children had to be safe, but taking them away from their parents was doing more harm than good,” says the article. So, the mayor and others developed the Qarmaapik Family House which offers parenting support, cooking classes, counseling for parents in crisis and other resources that enable families to stay together. The house also has four bedrooms at the back. “If children have to be taken out of a home because their parents are fighting, intoxicated or in crisis, they'll stay at Qarmaapik,” says the article.
