Organizers of a sexual health conference held this week in Inuvik, N.W.T., say they hope front-line health workers can leave the event knowing they have the resources to tackle sex issues in aboriginal and Inuit communities.

About 80 health professionals and researchers from across Canada met in Inuvik for the three-day conference, which ended Friday.

"We want them to take away [the message] that they're not alone," conference organizer Jeanette Doucet told CBC News on Thursday.

"There are resources. There are so many resources and so many organizations that they can link with."

The national conference was organized by the Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada organization, in part to have health workers discuss the climbing rates of sexually transmitted infections, like HIV and AIDS, among Inuit and aboriginal people.

Many delegates to this week's conference raised concern that the industrial boom taking place in Canada's North will contribute to more sexually transmitted infections in Inuit communities.

Doucet, who is the organization's sexual health policy manager, said sexual health concerns must be considered as communities plan for development.

"We know that with economic boom, and with migratory workforces, often comes higher rates of STIs," she said. "In the North, we can't afford higher rates of STIs. We just cannot afford it."

Doucet said the Inuvik conference allowed health workers to share strategies for promoting safer sex and talking to youth about issues such as being gay in small aboriginal communities.

One of the delegates, 22-year-old youth facilitator Jessica Yee, visited Inuvik's youth centre earlier this week to help young people present a myth-busting presentation on sex to their peers.