The 7th Generation National Tribal Mentoring Program

This solicitation invites applicants to propose national initiatives that will support the development, maturation, and expansion of community programs that provide mentoring services to tribal youth populations on tribal reservations of federally-recognized tribes across the nation that are underserved due to location, shortage of mentors, emotional or behavioral challenges of the targeted population, or other situations identified by the federally-recognized tribes. This program is authorized by the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2010, Pub. L. 111-117.

The 7th Generation National Tribal Mentoring Program (7th Generation) is designed to confront high rates of juvenile delinquency in American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) communities. Through 7th Generation, Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), seeks to improve outcomes for 10-17-year-old court-involved tribal youth in five tribes by customizing two Indian Country-developed best practice approaches for mentoring tribal youth: (1) Strong Circle of Relatives trains mentors to increase youths' understanding of tribal history, culture, and value systems and (2) The Sons and Daughters of Tradition prevention education program uses tribal staff to assist AI/AN youth in developing a sense of cultural identity that leads to positive choices. Over two years, 7th Generation's AI/AN staff will support on-site tribal staff to train up to 150 AI/AN mentors and match them with up to 150 AI/AN court-involved youth. 7th Generation will build tribal capacity to increase protective factors and to decrease youths' future involvement with alcohol, drugs, truancy, and juvenile justice. The Associate Project Director/Evaluation Specialist (APD/ES) will conduct all project evaluation activities and will be guided by EDC's extensive experience providing evaluation services to federal- and state-funded community-based programs in a variety of settings, including tribal communities.

CA/NCF