Siletz Tribal Youth 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 Siletz Tribe will provide prevention and intervention services for tribal youth ages 6-18 and their families who are at-risk for substance abuse, behavioral and emotional problems. Services funded by this project will be based in the Siletz community with efforts to involve tribal youth from the Willamette Valley through the Tribe’s Eugene, Salem, and Portland area offices. Of the nearly 765 tribal youth ages 6-18 living in the 11 county service areas, prevention programming will be provided to at least 75 at-risk tribal youth and their families over the life of the grant. The tribe estimates that it will provide direct crisis response services to at least 10 tribal youth and their families per year. The tribal youth program (TYP) will enhance crisis response services for individual youth and families, coordinate referral procedures with partnering programs, and train youth-serving staff on how to identify and refer at-risk youth to needed behavioral health services. With an expected increase in referrals for services through this grant funding, the tribe will hire a TYP Youth Development Director. The TYP Youth Development Director will play a key role in youth crisis response, coordinating prevention team planning, managing prevention cases, and communicating with and supporting families. In addition, the TYP Youth Development Director will organize and lead the experiential and cultural activities to help break down the barriers for those hesitant to seek treatment services and provide brief intervention and appropriate referrals to longer-term services. The Siletz TYP will actively build capacity toward implementing a full Project Venture program, a SAMHSA evidence-based model program, within the Siletz community by building the in-school component of this evidence-based model program. Culture-based and strength-based activities in this program will promote connectedness to family, tribe, land, culture and community to provide protection against a wide array of risky behaviors that can lead to poor outcomes, including juvenile justice involvement. The proposed TYP Youth Development Director will be key to coordinating year-round culture-based programming, prevention education, experiential education and adventure based programming to promote protective factors in at-risk tribal youth. The activities will use strength-based concepts and practices – both as prevention against risky behaviors as well as intervention strategies for Tribal youth already involved in the juvenile justice system.

CA/NCF