The Inuit Circumpolar Council, with funding assistance from the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), is a co-lead in this important Arctic Council project which focuses on suicide prevention. We are working towards “Circumpolar Well-being”.
It is a project by the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG). ICC is a co-lead, along with Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden.
Building on the success of Project CREATeS under the Finnish chairmanship (2017–2019), L2G aims to facilitate international collaboration and connections between circumpolar communities. We are working to prevent suicide and support the mental wellbeing of all Arctic youth and communities, including Arctic Indigenous Peoples who have the highest rates of suicide in the Arctic.
Given the emphasis that Arctic States place on mental wellness and suicide prevention and the importance of a sustained commitment to this goal, L2G spans a four-year period throughout the Arctic Council chairmanships of both Iceland (2019–2021) and Russia (2021–2023).
The project takes a holistic approach founded on the SDWG guiding principles of collaboration, concrete achievements, and inclusive engagement and activity. The project’s objectives are:
- Youth and Community Capacity Building: to build youth and community capacity through participatory methods including Digital Storytelling Workshops.
- Promotion of Suicide Prevention Strategies and Policy: to promote the implementation of suicide prevention strategies by facilitating circumpolar knowledge exchange of evidence-based prevention.
- Adverse Childhood Experiences: to address links between adverse childhood experiences and suicide prevention through a research initiative.
The key outcomes of this project will be:
- Strengthened youth participation in SDWG projects
- A strengthened circumpolar network of communities, frontline workers, and institutions working for suicide prevention and mental wellbeing of Arctic youth and communities, with emphasis on Indigenous Peoples.
- A deeper understanding of links between adverse and preventative childhood experiences and suicide
- Contributing to building youth and community capacity
- Facilitation of evidence-based, culturally-sensitive advocacy
- Increased international awareness of suicide prevention efforts.
Virtual Knowledge Exchange
The Virtual Knowledge Exchange took place in February and March 2021 with ICC and the Saami Council co-facilitating the sessions. This link will bring you to the report, and posters related to this activity. These materials are available in English, Inuktitut Syllabics and Roman Orthography, Greenlandic, and Russian.
Posters
Draft Reports
