Healing the Community One Step at a Time; Family Drug Court

The purpose of the Family Drug Courts Program is to build the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments to either implement new drug courts or enhance pre-existing drug courts for substance-abusing adults involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse and neglect issues. Applicants must provide services to the children of the parents in the program as well as to the parents. The program provides seed money, not long-term support. OJJDP expects successful applicants to develop and implement a sustainability plan during the grant period to continue operation of the family drug court when the grant ends. The program is authorized under 42 U.S.C. 3797u et seq.
The purpose of this project is to reduce child abuse and neglect within Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal (LEKT) jurisdiction, resulting from parental or caregiver substance abuse and co-occurring mental health issues and to provide services and treatment to all family members in order to achieve a safe and permanent placement for children. In recognition of the fact that every single tribal dependency case is related to drug and alcohol abuse, the Tribe intends to fully integrate this Healing (drug) Court collaborative approach into its existing Family Court. This integration would greatly increase the capacity of LEKT Family Court to serve its clients - Court hearings would quadruple from once a month to once a week; an additional outreach staff would provide both directemployment/educational/cultural services but would also provide hands-on case management, including home visits; and a team/collaboration of all justice and treatment-related tribal agencies would increase the quantity and quality of services offered to the Tribe's Family Court participants. CA/NCF