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HILI Highlight: Strengthening Indian Country Through Tribal Youth Programs

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OJJDP PUBLICATIONS & RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO NATIVE YOUTH

Strengthening Indian Country Through Tribal Youth Programs

OJJDP-Sponsored, 2009. This report, prepared by the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) in partnership with OJJDP, provides preliminary findings based on site visits with five Tribal Youth Programs in 2007 and 2008. The purpose was to investigate how individual programs are succeeding in improving the lives of at-risk youth and strengthening families in Tribal communities. NCJ 228965.

Abstract | PDF

The UNITY Peer Guides and Healing Indigenous Lives Initiative is dedicated to spreading awareness of available resources to Native youth to help increase community safety, protective factors and reduce youth risky behaviors contributing to juvenile delinquency.

This report examines how five Tribal Youth Programs (TYPs), supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) at the U.S. Department of Justice, are improving the lives of youth and strengthening their families. The Tribal Youth Program provides funds to Native American tribes to support and enhance tribal efforts to prevent and control delinquency and improve the juvenile justice system for American Indian and Alaska Native youth ages 10-17. AYPF and OJJDP conducted site visits to five TYPs in 2007 and 2008 in order to examine how tribes are using these funds to create engaging, supportive, and culturally-relevant programs for youth. The TYPs featured in this report empower youth to lead the community in activities that build a sense of attachment to heritage, promote belonging, support personal development, and provide exposure to career-related skills. The five tribes that are profiled in this report include the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Old Harbor Village, Absentee Shawnee Tribe, and Mescalero Apache Tribe (October 2009; 24 pages).