Chippewa Cree Tribe Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court Program

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) 2016 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 Chippewa Cree Tribe (CCT) will enhance their Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court (JHWC) Program. The project will address crime and public safety issues on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in relation to how substance abuse affects such crime. The Strategic Planning period in year one will enhance the tribal court’s policies related to adjudication of juveniles with substance-related offenses. The interdepartmental, communitywide planning effort will be used to assess their 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 enhancement 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 their 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.

CA/NCF