Healing to Wellness Court

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) 2015 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 8--Juvenile Healing to Wellness Courts. The overall goal of this program is to enhance the capacity of tribal courts to respond to the alcohol-related issues of youth under the age of 21. This can include the development of a new juvenile healing to wellness court or enhancements to an existing tribal healing to wellness court.

The Red Lake Band of Chippewa’s Tribal Council & Tribal Courts Leadership wants to increase the potential and capacity of the Red Lake Juvenile Court to empower the juveniles and families its court serves; with the intent to resolve conflicts and provide a comprehensive holistic and culturally appropriate response to the high rate of alcohol consumption and abuse among Red Lake juveniles. The Red Lake Band of Chippewa plans to implement a new policies and program service framework across all youth serving programs in order to begin reclaiming, restoring, and creating a sense of belonging and purpose for Red Lake youth that are engaged in underage drinking leading to the high incidence of becoming involved in the juvenile justice system.

Tribal Youth Healing To Wellness Court Program goals include: (1) By the end of year three, Red Lake Tribal Juvenile Court Healing to Wellness strategies will significantly increase the success of 120 youth charged with underage drinking, resulting in an increase of youth who receive appropriate services that will lead to the decrease/ abstinence of alcohol usage/drug use, decrease of juvenile delinquency and recidivism; (2) By the end of year three, the utilization of Motivational Interviewing case management model by all juvenile court personal will contribute to increasing the number of youth who complete all requirements of the court disposition, leading to a decrease of recidivism among youth charged with underage drinking, DWI, public intoxication; and (3) By the end of year three, the utilization of Restorative Practices will contribute to increasing “alternatives to detention” services and a decrease in recidivism for 120 Red Lake court involved youth.
CA/NCF