Blackfeet Tribe Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court Project

The Justice Department's grant-making components have created a streamlined approach for federally recognized Tribes, Tribal consortia, Alaska Native villages and corporations, as well as authorized tribal designees to apply for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 funding opportunities. The Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) serves as a single solicitation for existing tribal government-specific grant programs administered by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). The CTAS solicitation is designed to assist tribes with addressing crime and public safety issues in a comprehensive manner. The CTAS grant-application process was inspired by and developed after consultation with tribal leaders, including sessions at the Justice Department's Tribal Nations Listening Session in 2009, and has been updated based on continued tribal consultations and listening sessions.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) provides awards under CTAS Purpose Area 9--Tribal Youth Program (TYP) to federally recognized tribes to develop and implement programs that support and enhance Tribal efforts to prevent and control juvenile delinquency and strengthen juvenile justice system for American Indian/Alaska Native youth. This program is authorized by the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2014, Pub. L. No. 113-76; 128 Stat. 5, 65.

The Blackfeet Tribe (BT) plans to implement a 12-month Strategic Planning Process followed by a 24-month project implementation. The BT Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court Project (BT-JHWCP) will result in the development and implementation of an indigenous tribal juvenile drug court, aimed at the development and implementation of Tribal best practices and traditional healing methods to support Tribal youth. The 12-month Strategic Planning period will develop and enhance the tribal court's policies related to the adjudication of juveniles with substance-related offenses. The interdepartmental, community-wide planning effort will be used to access the current justice system's purpose of accurately determining service gaps and how they relate to juvenile treatment. The goal of this process will be to build the necessary partnerships and services that will be needed to make implementation of juvenile substance abuse treatment successful. Strategies and problem-solving techniques will be developed to address the situations that are a result of the juvenile drug or alcohol abuse issues. This process has been carefully selected to address the community's need to reduce 1) juvenile substance abuse; 2) overall juvenile delinquency; and ultimately 3) adult substance abuse. This will be accomplished by planning a process that can effectively access the juvenile substance abuse issue, successfully implement a program to treat the juveniles that are affected and follow-up with appropriate preventative measures to reduce recidivism. The 24 month implementation period will be guided by the above-mentioned strategic plan. Specifically, the strategic planning team (Healing to Wellness Team) will derive relevant strategies from the Blackfeet Community using the 16 key strategies from Juvenile Drug Courts: Strategies in Practice.
CA/NCF