Tribal Youth Program

Part of the Indian Country Law Enforcement Initiative, a joint initiative of DOJ and the U.S. Department of the Interior to improve law enforcement and the administration of criminal and juvenile justice in Indian country, OJJDP's Tribal Youth Program (TYP) supports and enhances tribal efforts to prevent and control delinquency and strengthen the juvenile justice system for American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth. This program is authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended and the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2009, Pub. L. 111-8.

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is a Federally Recognized Indian Tribe and currently has 30,324 tribal members. The tribe is applying for category 3 funding: Tribal Juvenile Justice System Improvement. Funding will potentially serve a juvenile population of 3,599 tribal members between the ages of 11-17 years. The projects will take place on the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians reservation sites located in several Michigan Counties. The type of setting will be both school and detention and the types of projects this grant will focus on will be year round delinquency prevention, probation enhancement/reintegration programming, and case management. The project goals are as follows. 1) Obtain case management system. 2) Develop and implement the Sault Tribe Enhanced Probation (STEP) program. 3) Develop and implement Tribal Youth Court. With the development of a Tribal Youth Court which will focus on status offenders throughout the school year and enhanced probation services/reintegration programming the objective is to reduce the number of youth at-risk of being removed from the home due to delinquent behaviors. The purchase of a case management system will improve the tribal juvenile justice system by providing a mechanism to track, retrieve, document, and evaluate our juvenile offenders.

Performance measures will include surveys to identify steps for improving training, mechanisms to give participants feedback on the program, and the number of youth adjudicated through the Youth Court. CA/NCF