Peacemaking Youth Education and Apprenticeship 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) 2017 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 systems for American Indian/Alaska Native youth.

The Navajo Nation's Peacemaking Youth Education and Apprenticeship Program (“PYEAP”) hopes to reduce truancy, delinquency, and court involvement of Navajo youth through cultural education, peer-to-peer Peacemaking, and adult mentorship. Navajo youth are in severe crisis: drug and alcohol dependence, poverty, unemployment, absent parents, and low educational attainment are all prevalent on the Navajo Nation lands. In some communities, as much as 90% of middle-school children are homeless. These conditions have devastating effects on young people. Suicide and violence rates are extremely high. Keeping young people in school provides structure and the opportunity created by education. Navajo children and adolescents are disconnected from their families and communities, in part because of assimilated Anglo-American culture and the loss of Navajo cultural grounding. Youth cultural education focuses on language, traditional beliefs and values, relationships with immediate and extended family, the bonds with family and community members, self-respect, and respect for others. This cultural grounding instills self-esteem and identity for Navajo youth while reconnecting them with caring elders and community members. Peacemaking is the Navajo traditional practice for achieving justice. In Navajo culture, the goal is to restore everyone involved in conflict to peaceful, productive co-citizenship in the community. For troubled youth, the process leads to rejuvenation of positive relationships in school, families, and the community. Through this program, Youth Apprentice Peacemakers are taught the methods and values, and paired with adult Peacemaker mentors who work with them and their schools to help them engage in problem-solving for at-risk youth. PYEAP has already trained 100 Youth Apprentice Peacemakers, and will train at least 40 more each year with CTAS funding. They will work with an adult mentor and continue their cultural education, while working as peer-to-peer Peacemakers in their schools and communities. The Peacemaking Program has entered into Memoranda of Understanding with over 40 schools, including the University of New Mexico, to deliver educational, Peacemaking, and mentoring services. The youth will work on 300 cases, and education will be delivered to over 2,000 young people during the term of the grant. CA/NCF