Acoma Juvenile Healing to Wellness Program

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 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention provides awards under CTAS Purpose Area 8-Juvenile Healing to Wellness Courts. The overall purpose of this grant program is to support tribes seeking to develop a new Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court to respond to the alcohol and substance use issues of juveniles and young adults under the age of 21.

The Acoma Tribal Court will establish a new Juvenile Healing to Wellness (JHTW) Court for juvenile alcohol and substance abuse (ASA)related cases. A JHTW Court will provide a comprehensive juvenile justice system to address ASA-related juvenile delinquency, school failure, truancy, intra-family conflicts, and other contributing factors. The JHTW will improve the handling of ASA juvenile cases through multi-disciplinary cases reviews, intensive court supervision and judicial interaction, multiple referral points into the program, screening and eligibility assessments, interventions and treatment, and graduated incentives and sanctions. Case management and follow up with treatment referrals to allied agencies, such as Acoma Behavioral Health, Social Services, and community-based resources will ensure successful treatment outcomes. Cultural based protective factors utilized by the JHTW court will be provided through connections to cultural mentoring, healing and wellness sessions. CA/NCF