TYP: Examples of Grantee Activities

• The Navajo Nation, Window Rock, AZ, through its Haznojhi Youth Diversion Project, is incorporating traditional and western education and therapy in an intensive 3-week diversion program for court-involved youth and their families. Participants receive information and training on topics such as communication, drug and alcohol abuse, juvenile crime and its consequences, the impact of crime on victims and the community, and the Navajo view of offenses against the community.
  
  
• The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Suttons Bay, MI, is using a cultural perspective to address the problem of truancy among tribal youth. Home visits and referrals to services and programs are essential elements of the tribe’s plan for preventing and reducing truancy. The project’s main objectives are to educate the community about the importance of addressing truant behavior early, to decrease the community’s tolerance for truancy, and to build capacity for assessing the needs of truant youth, those at risk of truancy, and their families.
  
  
• The Tanana Chiefs Conference, Fairbanks, AK, is developing pilot youth courts in 14 tribal villages to address youth crime and related behaviors and to promote accountability and responsibility for youth actions among elders and peers. The youth courts are organized around tribal principles that incorporate culture and tradition in dealing with young people. The project is also drafting and adopting juvenile codes/ordinances for use by youth courts, developing content for youth court handbooks, and designing a training curriculum to help villages implement the youth court program.
  
  
• The Burns Paiute Indian Reservation in Harney County, a rural area of eastern Oregon, is using TYP funds to address alcohol and marijuana abuse, juvenile crime, and academic failure; improve tribal youth service delivery systems; and increase the availability and accessibility of community-based wraparound services for high-risk youth. The tribe also is working with parent volunteers and other members of the community to develop a comprehensive 3-year plan to combat the early onset of alcohol and drug use, reduce violence and criminal behavior, and prevent youth from dropping out of school.
  
  
• The Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, located in an urban setting near El Paso, TX, is providing interventions for court-involved tribal youth and improving its tribal juvenile justice system. The pueblo’s new home detention system reduces the need to place youth away from their families. The pueblo’s community service program has been expanded to include traditional restitution, mentoring activities that involve police officers, diversion programs that apply auxiliary community policing concepts, greater supervision of youth on probation, and more activities to deter crime among court-involved youth.
  
  
• The Wampanoag Tribe, located in rural Aquinnah, MA, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, is establishing the Wampanoag Youth Program to engage at-risk youth in culturally appropriate activities. The program has targeted 41 tribal youth who have been referred by the juvenile court or who are considered to be at risk of entering the juvenile justice system. Activities will include alcohol and drug abuse prevention education and cultural events such as tribal powwows, nature walks, storytelling, and drumming and dance shows.
  
  
• The Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Atmore, AL, a rural reservation that encompasses four southern Alabama counties and Florida’s Escambia County, is developing a project to address the needs of a target population of approximately 660 at-risk youth. The project will emphasize the incorporation of traditional tribal cultural teachings and will include delinquency prevention activities, an afterschool program, and intervention and prevention services in local schools.

OJJDP's Tribal Youth Initiatives	OJJDP Bulletin • May 2003