Safety and the good life

Safety is an important foundation for learning and development. Qaasuitsup Municipality focuses on vulnerable groups and on securing good and safe settings for all children in the municipality, and providing safe quality leisure areas in urban spaces.

In Qaasuitsup Municipality, we want all citizens to have good and safe settings to live in.

But in order to grow and develop, the foundation must be solid. We all need a number of basic living conditions in order to thrive and develop.

Our ancestors were good at adapting to survive in the rough Arctic nature. Confronted by volatile weather and unforeseeable challenges, they used their wits and made careful preparations to find a way out of trouble.

We need to muster all the strength and willingness to change that is embedded in our culture and natural instincts and use them to tackle some of the many challenges we are facing today.

Our starting point should be our resources, not our problems. Putting people first, we must focus on possibilities and strengths to ensure that our initiatives help create positive development and change.

We must respect each individual's life situation, but it should be a matter of give and take and we should require each citizen to do their part.

We must focus on our children and the young – they are the future that our society will build on. Some children are especially vulnerable and require special help and support to overcome challenges. We need to break the negative cycle.

In our social initiatives, Qaasuitsup Municipality focuses on the whole picture, not just the individual. If our initiatives are to have any effect, we have to look at not just the problem and the individual, but also the context in which the individual and the problem exist.

Early action is vital. We need to be good at addressing problems as soon as possible before they grow too big.

Through early action targeting pregnant women and good, interdisciplinary cooperation among the municipality, midwives and health visitors, we will give new citizens in Qaasuitsup Municipality the best possible start to life.

Many human and economic resources are wasted when so many young are left to themselves, roaming about the town at night. We have to face the problem and, with a firm but loving hand, invite the young to join more meaningful relations and communities. In this way, they will learn to be responsible for themselves and others.

In the future, we must invite children and the young to be part of the process of developing new projects relevant to them. In this way, we will in the long term achieve a far higher commitment and sense of responsibility among children and the young.

Senior citizens are an important resource to society. They should not be isolated and stored out of sight, rather be included in communities, contributing valuable knowledge and experience. Senior citizens should be treated with dignity. Preparations should be made to enable them to remain in their own home as long as possible, if that is what they want. Retirement homes are to be enhanced and provide high-quality services.