Grantees - Minnesota (TYP)

The Prairie Island Indian Community (PIIC) is a federally recognized tribe in the state of Minnesota with a population of 600, of which 300 are youth. PIIC will provide intervention services for 151 court-involved tribal youth in the age range of 10 to 17 years of age. The project will also implement activities to improve the tribal juvenile justice system. The project's planned activities will focus on diversion and restoration, and the development of juvenile justice codes and systems.

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Minnesota Chippewa Tribe

Project Title: Ojibwe School Cooperative Discipline Program

Category: I

The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will provide prevention services to impact risk factors for 275 juveniles from ages 13 to 17 years of age at the Fond du Lac Ojibwe school on the Fond du Lake Reservation in Minnesota. The goal of the program is to prevent truancy by impacting risk factors leading to delinquency. Specifically, OSCDP will reduce student truancy and drop-outs by focusing on early identification and intervention activities, with consequences that motivate students to improve school attendance. The strategy of the project is to train and empower elders to discipline students for their poor school attendance.

2005 Tribal Youth Program Grantees

Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Mille Lacs Band, MN

Project Title: Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Tribal Youth Program

Category: I & IV

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe's Tribal Youth Program will focus on at-risk youth ages 11 to 17. The program will serve at least 100 youth each year. The project will be located in the community centers in each of Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Reservation's three remaining districts. The Tribal Youth Project will utilize recreational opportunities and traditional Ojibwe concepts regarding rites of passage as incentives and rewards for successful progress in an educational afterschool program designed to reduce truancy, delinquency, and drug and alcohol abuse. The program will be administered by staff of the community youth services department who will work in close collaboration with the Nay Ah Shing tribal schools, Ne-Ia-Shing Clinic mental and behavioral health department, tribal police, tribal courts, parents, elders and others to target at-risk youth throughout the school year. These at-risk youth will be referred to the program, but the program will also be open to any youth who wish to participate. In order to provide good models and friends for the at-risk youth, some successful students may be specifically targeted for recruitment to the program.

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Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, MN

Project Title: Creating Restitution and Following Traditions (CRAFT)

Category: II, III

The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians' CRAFT project will serve youth ages 12 to 17. The project will serve 600 juveniles over three years. The project will be located on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota . The setting of the project will be the large common room of St. John's in the Wilderness Church , centrally located in Red Lake . The CRAFT workshop will be an after school program of diversion and restitution. It will very likely extend into weekends and even overnight as it grows. The original CRAFT program took part in both spiritual and traditional seasonal encampments as part of its therapeutic activities. CRAFT will provide an alternative for sentencing juveniles and will provide restitution activities. The project will strengthen the tribal juvenile justice system by adding a cadre of 20 judges who will sit in panels of five for two days every quarter.

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Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, MN

Project Title: Red Lake Tribal Youth Mental Health Program

Category: II

The Red Lake Tribal Court's Tribal Youth Program Mental Health Initiative will hire a part time clinical psychologist to provide services to at risk or court involved youth. The program will serve between 900 and 1,400 juveniles, ages 10-17, over three years. Red Lake's juvenile court system does not have adequate resources to address the more seriously affected youth. The assistance of a reservation-based clinical psychologist who serves primarily juvenile cases will greatly boost the timeliness of services to juvenile referred for mental health assessments. Timely attention to these juveniles will assure their treatment, recovery and safety.

2004 Tribal Youth Program Grantee

Minnesota Chippewa Tribe

Project Title: Minnesota Chippewa Tribal Youth Program

Category: IV

Juveniles on the White Earth Reservation experiences with tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, and violence, truancy and school dropouts are greater than regional, state and national averages. The target population of the Juvenile Justice Program is 12 to 18 years of age. The elements of the Juvenile Justice Program are continuation of the Juvenile Tribal Court Advocate to provide both probationary and counseling services to juveniles, expand and develop Sentencing Circles within the Mahnomen, Waubun, Ogema, and Circle of Life school systems and create cultural and recreational activities for after school, weekends and summers. Currently, there are 105 students participating in circles on a weekly basis. New programming has been developed and will be implemented into the circles to help students with their chemical dependency and violence. Since recreational activities will be open for all area youth, itwill allow the youth to interact in positive activities where they will learn how to work together.

2003 Tribal Youth Program Grantee

Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians

Project: Red Lake Tribal Wilderness Camp Initiative

Category: II. Intervention for Court-Involved Youth; IV. Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Programs

The main objective of the Red Lake Tribal Wilderness Camp Initiative is the establishment of a specialized intervention procedure for court-involved tribal youth that combines outdoor wilderness camps with traditional tribal healing methods. The Wilderness Camp works closely with the Red Lake tribal juvenile and drug courts to identify juveniles with the greatest intervention needs because of emotional, behavioral, psychological, and/or substance abuse problems. The Wilderness Camp Initiative contracts with an established outdoor behavioral healthcare facility to provide the specialized services needed. The main objective of the Wilderness Camp Initiative is to develop the program so that, after 3 years, up to 50 youth will be served.

2002 Tribal Youth Program Grantee

Leach Lake Band of Ojibwe Indians

Project: Teen-Helping-Teens Project

Category: I. Reduce, Control, and Prevent Indian Juvenile Crime

The Teen-Helping-Teens project provides at-risk youth with a helping network of culturally appropriate, community-based programs of peer mentors supported with leadership development activities that focus on substance abuse, crime, and violence prevention. The project provides safe and confidential services and places where youth can share feelings, receive support, and obtain assistance. The service population includes rural and urban youth ages 5 to 11 for early intervention; the primary target group is youth ages 12 to 18.

2001 Tribal Youth Program Grantees

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians

Project: Cultural Awareness Program

Category: IV. Prevention Programs Focusing on Alcohol and Drugs

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe will use TYP funds to build on the Mille Lacs Mentoring and Work Internship Program that started in 1999. This program is a mentoring program that provides positive interaction with youth to combat negative behaviors and develop self-esteem and a healthy lifestyle. TYP funds are being used to implement the second component of the Mentoring and Internship Program. The second component involves strategies and activities that help program participants gain a better understanding of their culture and the traditions of the Ojibwe Nation. The strategies include cultural experiences, activities that develop a sense of fun and cooperation, problem-solving exercises, community service, and learning projects. Participants male and female youth who have been referred by the courts, police, social services, and schools.

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White Earth Reservation Tribal Council

Project: White Earth Reservation Juvenile Justice Program

Category: I. Reduce, Control, and Prevent Indian Juvenile Crime; II. Intervention for Court-Involved Youth; III. Improvement to Tribal Juvenile Justice Systems

The White Earth Reservation is assailing problems of tobacco, alcohol and drug use, violence, truancy, and school dropouts through a three-pronged effort. The first prong is the development of a juvenile justice code. The second prong is hiring a juvenile tribal court advocate who will serve as probation officer and counselor to adjudicated youth. The third prong is the development of Sentencing Circles, which will, after an offending juvenile agrees to participate in the process, recommend a disposition to the tribal court. The Sentencing Circle process is based on a traditional model used in the Yukon and is tailored after Talking Circles, which are often used as a traditional alternative for alcohol and drug counseling and conflict resolution.

2000 Tribal Youth Program Grantees

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians

Project: Mille Lacs Mentoring and Work Internship Program

Category: I. Reduce, Control, and Prevent Indian Juvenile Crime

The Mille Lacs Mentoring and Work Internship Program is located on the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation in northwestern Minnesota. The type of program the tribe is implementing is a mentoring program, with a twist. The tribe is combining a work internship program with on-the-job mentoring. The program targets American Indian youth ages 15 to 19 who have been involved in the court system due to criminal activities or juvenile delinquency. This program aims to convert high-risk juveniles from troublemakers to productive community members and to give guidance when youth return from treatment, detention, or jail.

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Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians

Project: Nokomis Minawaa Nimishomis Project

Category: I. Reduce, Control, and Prevent Indian Juvenile Crime; IV. Prevention Programs Focusing on Alcohol and Drugs

The Nokomis Minawaa Nimishomis Project seeks the wisdom of community elders to identify beliefs and traditions that need to be passed on to tribal youth. Through the project, the tribe attempts to capitalize on the eminence and honor of its people and the Powwow through services designed specifically for high-risk Native American youth. Services focus on whole family role modeling and mentoring, assured and immediate self-esteem building, and a diversion plan to steer Native American youth into prosocial behaviors. The project is creating collaborative youth serving organizations on the reservations and in nearby communities.