Youth & Elders Dietary Choices Pilot Project
Project Facilitators:
- Aklavik Health Committee (Billy Archie & Velma Illasiak)
Funders:
- University of Ottawa ACADRE, CIHR Team in Circumpolar Health
In 2006, the Aklavik Health Committee partnered with ICHR and the local Moose Kerr School in to launch a Youth & Elders Dietary Choices Pilot Project, which was designed to engage Aklavik youth in examining dietary choices and diet-disease relationships at the community-level.
The first phase of the pilot project was based out of Moose Kerr School in the summer of 2007. As a community-driven participatory project, research facilitators worked in collaboration with the health committee, school, hamlet, local band office, and other interested stakeholders to design the project and determine outcomes.
The project also took the form of an elective health class for senior students. Completion of dietary recalls along with daily classroom discussions provided the students with a better understanding of their own eating habits and the opportunity to think critically about the implications and realities of dietary choices in their community. These activities motivated the students to create a video to capture other community members perceptions about dietary choices and health. Two students from the class, Bonnie Koe and Autumn Semple, continued filming and produced a 60-minute video documenting food and nutrition trends and challenges in Aklavik. ICHR later supported the students in representing the project at the Indigenous Network for Indigenous Health Knowledge and Development Conference in Roturua, New Zealand, October 2007.
