Title: Tribal Youth Program Series: OJJDP Fact Sheet #108 Author: Chyrl Andrews Published: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, April 1999 Subject: Juvenile delinquency prevention, Native Americans 4 pages 8,000 bytes Figures, charts, forms, and tables are not included in this ASCII plain-text file. To view this document in its entirety, download the Adobe Acrobat graphic file available from this Web site or order a print copy from NCJRS at 800-638-8736. ------------------------------- Tribal Youth Program by Chyrl Andrews Although violent crime rates have been declining throughout the Nation, they continue to rise in Indian Country. Native-American tribes and the Department of Justice are especially concerned about the increasing number of violent crimes committed by juveniles and youth gangs in many Native-American communities. The number of Native-American youth in Bureau of Prisons (BOP) custody has increased 50 percent since 1994, and more than 70 percent of the approximately 270 youth in BOP custody on any given day are Native-Americans. To help address this concern, Congress established the Tribal Youth Program (TYP), setting aside $10 million in fiscal year (FY) 1999. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), established by Congress in 1974 to help communities and States prevent and control delinquency and improve their juvenile justice systems, will administer the program. Although OJJDP has provided discretionary grant funds and training and technical assistance to Native-American tribes in the past, TYP is the first OJJDP program dedicated to prevention, control, and juvenile justice system improvement in Native-American communities. TYP is part of the Indian Country Law Enforcement Initiative, a program of the Departments of Justice and the Interior that is designed to enhance Indian Country law enforcement standards and improve the quality of life in Indian Country. Congress appropriated $88.9 million in FY 1999 for the initiative, which involves several Department of Justice agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Corrections Program Office, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, and OJJDP. Of the $10 million appropriated for TYP, OJJDP will use $1 million to support program-related research, evaluation, and statistics; $200,000 to provide training and technical assistance to tribal programs; and $7,990,000 for discretionary grants. This Fact Sheet discusses the solicitation process for TYP. OJJDP announced TYP in April 1999 and applications are due by June 30, 1999. Copies of the program announcement are available from OJJDP's Web site. Discretionary Grants In developing the TYP solicitation, OJJDP conducted a focus group meeting with representatives from Native-American communities to receive their input on the needs of Native-American communities and their advice on how the program should be structured. Focus group participants made several suggestions, including the following: o Grantees should be encouraged to tap into the wisdom available from elders and family members within Native-American communities. o The program structure developed by OJJDP should recognize that each tribe is different, has its own tribal history and traditions, and has its own economic, political, and social relationships. Each tribe also has a unique relationship with Federal and State governments. o OJJDP should ensure that any evaluation effort is useful to the community and cognizant of the Indian Nation's history and cultural differences. The program announcement for TYP offers a flexible grant program designed to meet the unique needs of each Native-American community applicant to prevent and control delinquency and improve its juvenile justice system. All federally recognized tribes and Alaskan Native villages or coalitions of tribes or villages are eligible to apply for a 3-year grant, which will range from $75,000 to $500,000. (For the purposes of this program, the terms Indian, Native-American, and tribe include all federally recognized tribes and Alaskan Native villages.) Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis. In making funding decisions, OJJDP will consider the size of the tribe, geographic location, and whether the tribe is in an urban or rural area. Grant Categories To be eligible for the grants, applicants must focus on one or more of the following categories of program activity: o Category I--Reduce, control, and prevent crime both by and against tribal youth. This category includes identification of risk factors, community needs assessments, family strengthening, truancy reduction, dropout prevention, parenting skills, antigang education for young children, conflict resolution, bullying prevention, child abuse prevention, gang reduction strategies, and youth gun violence reduction. o Category II--Interventions for court-involved tribal youth. This category includes graduated sanctions, restitution, diversion, home detention, foster and shelter care, community-based services, improved aftercare services, teen courts, and mentoring. o Category III--Improvement to tribal juvenile justice systems. This category includes training for juvenile court personnel, including judges; intake assessments; model tribal juvenile codes; advocacy programs; gender-specific services; probation services; and aftercare programs. o Category IV--Prevention programs focusing on alcohol and drugs. This category includes drug and alcohol education, drug testing, individual and family substance abuse counseling, and peer counseling. Funding Amounts The amount of funding available to grantees under TYP is based on tribal populations found in Indian Labor Force Report: Portrait 1997 (Robert Stearns, Washington, DC: Bureau of Indian Affairs Statistics Office, 1999). Funding ranges are as follows: Funding ranges based on total Native-American service population on or near the reservation are as follows: 500 or fewer residents: up to $75,000 over a period of 3 years; 501-2,500 residents: up to $100,000 over a period of 3 years; 2,501-5,000 residents: up to $250,000 over a period of 3 years; 5,001 or more residents: up to $5,000 over a period of 3 years. Applicants who are initiating a new program may budget up to (but no more than) 20 percent of the 3-year grant to support planning/startup for the first 6 to 12 months of the project. During the planning/startup phase, technical assistance and grant management training will be available to grantees through American Indian Development Associates, Inc., of Albuquerque, NM. Applicants who do not require a planning period or who are enhancing an existing project may budget for direct services over a 3-year period. For Further Information Copies of the program announcement are available from OJJDP's Web site, www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org. For additional information about TYP or the application process, contact Chyrl Andrews, Program Manager, OJJDP, 810 Seventh Street NW., Washington, DC 20531; 202-307-5924 (phone); 202-307-2819 (fax); andrewsc@ojp.usdoj.gov (e-mail). ------------------------------- Chyrl Andrews is the Acting Program Manager for the Tribal Youth Program. ------------------------------- The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime. ------------------------------- FS-99108