OJJDP FY25 Grantee Welcome and Orientation Webinar
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Category: Tribal Youth Program Training
Planning for a Youth Healing to Wellness Court
Facilitators: Pat Sekaquaptewa, Ashley Anderson
Description: This online learning event will provide an overview of the key components, tasks, and timelines for planning a Youth Healing to Wellness Court (YHWC), which serves as an intervention for Tribal/County court-involved youth experiencing alcohol and/or substance use.
Resources:
Youth Healing to Wellness Court 101
Facilitators: Pat Sekaquaptewa, Erin Thin Elk, Ashley Anderson
This online learning event will provide an introduction to the Youth Healing to Wellness Court (YHWC) model, which serves as an intervention for Tribal/County court-involved youth experiencing alcohol and/or other substance use.
Resources:
The Tribal Healing to Wellness Court Key Components (2014)
Mental Health and Wellness: Tribally Focused Strategies to Decrease Juvenile Delinquency
This webinar focuses on promoting mental health in remote Tribal communities with limited resources. The session will explore tribally informed approaches, community-based strategies, and practical tools to bridge gaps in mental health access and care. By strengthening mental health support systems early and within the community, these approaches can play a critical role in preventing juvenile involvement in the justice system.
Resources:
•Screening and Brief Intervention https://www.miccsi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/02-MHTTC-SBIRTShort-Screens-Brief-Assessments.pdf
•Project Venture https://projectventure.org/
•American Indian Life Skills https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED402129
LaFromboise, T. D., & Howard, H. H. (1997). American Indian life skills development curriculum. University of Wisconsin–Madison.
•Youth Mental Health Aid Resource
National Council for Mental Wellbeing & Mental Health First Aid USA. (n.d.). Help youth: Mental health first aid. https://mentalhealthfirstaid.org/individuals/help-youth/
References:
•Tribal Youth Incarceration Disparities
The Sentencing Project. (2025, August 12). Tribal disparities in youth incarceration. The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/fact-sheet/disparities-in-tribal-youth-incarceration/
•Indigenous Mental Health Facts (MHA)
Mental Health America. (n.d.). Indigenous American mental health: Quick facts. Mental Health America. https://mhanational.org/resources/indigenous-facts/
•Mental & Behavioral Health — American Indians/Alaska Natives (OMH)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. (2026). Mental health in American Indians/Alaska Natives. https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/mental-and-behavioral-health-american-indiansalaska-natives#footnote2
•Mental & Behavioral Health Disparities by Race & Ethnicity
United Health Foundation. (2023). Mental & behavioral health data brief: Key findings — Race and ethnicity. America’s Health Rankings. https://www.americashealthrankings.org/learn/reports/mental-and-behavioral-health-data-brief/key-findings-race-and-ethnicity
•Culture as a Determinant of Health for Native Americans
Walters, K. L., Freydberg, N., & Simoni, J. (2023). The Culture is Prevention Project: Measuring cultural connectedness and providing evidence that culture is a social determinant of health for Native Americans. BMC Public Health, 23, Article 15587. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-023-15587-x
•U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health (HHS OMH). (2026). Mental and behavioral health data: American Indians/Alaska Natives. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://mhanational.org/resources/indigenous-facts/
•Mental Health America. (2026). Indigenous American mental health: Quick facts. Mental Health America. https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/mental-and-behavioral-health-american-indiansalaska-natives
•Kenney, M. K., & Singh, G. K. (2016). Adverse Childhood Experiences Among American Indian/Alaska Native Children: Findings from the 2011–2012 National Survey of Children’s Health. Scientifica. https://www.nicwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/NICWA-State-of-AIAN-Children-and-Families-Report-PART-3.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
•Masotti, P., Dennem, J., Bañuelos, K., Seneca, C., Valerio-Leonce, G., & King, J. (2023). The Culture is Prevention Project: measuring cultural connectedness and providing evidence that culture is a social determinant of health for Native Americans. BMC Public Health, 23, 741. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15587-x
Drug Trends in Indian Country-Cannabis and Youth Healing to Wellness Courts – A Three-Part Series
This webinar series explores the current adolescent drug trends in Indian Country with a focus on cannabis, related substances, and the implicated Youth Healing to Wellness Court eligibility requirements, and policies and procedures.
Motivating and Incentivizing Youth Toward their Goals in Youth Healing to Wellness Courts (YHWCs)
This webinar will introduce attendees to the Youth Healing to Wellness Court (YHWC) model, including case (wellness) co-planning, goal setting, and the development of a YHWC incentive/Sanction Protocol that may be used to motivate youth to achieve their pro-social goals, and ultimately to reduce juvenile and criminal recidivism. This webinar will also explore the current debates surrounding the application of the protocol in rural settings with cultural adaptation.
Facilitators: Pat Sekaquaptewa, Ashley Anderson
Parenting Programs and Prevention of Tribal Youth Delinquency
Tribal Youth programs have services for youth and families that are intended to prevent and address youth involvement in the justice system. The Tribally-focused parenting programs information is intended to expand the capacity of parents/families to prevent youth/juvenile delinquency.
Facilitators: Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs, Jordan Gibson, Teresa Nord, Nohealani Behler, Eileen Iron Cloud
Resilience And Reconnection: Our Stories Of Contemporary Indigenous Parenting
Visit this online resource for Stories of Contemporary Indigenous Parenting.
Letter from the Editor: “How often have you come across a story about Indigenous parenting in the media? It’s a question I asked myself while putting together the stories collected here. While Indigenous people make up around 2% of the American population — and 5% in Canada, where I am from — our voices are still too rarely heard. When Indigenous parents do appear, the stories about us tend to be tragic.
There are reasons for that: Indigenous parents face particular challenges. Our maternal mortality rate is twice as high as that of non-Indigenous parents; our children are far more likely to be taken by the foster care system. Many Indigenous people are survivors of residential schools and Indian boarding schools, and of subsequent initiatives to scoop Indigenous kids from their communities and adopt them out to white families.
It’s important to talk about these injustices. But it’s equally important to talk about Indigenous parenting as a joyful and hopeful practice. There is no more profound act of resistance than nurturing the next generation, and believing that their future can be beautiful. When I held my daughter for the first time, I felt the connection between her body and mine, but also our connection to all the ancestors who had come before us, who had lived and loved and survived so that we could be here together.” — Michelle Cyca, Guest Editor
Protecting our Most Vulnerable – Strengthening Supports for Unsheltered & Runaway Native Youth (The 2nd part of an Online Learning Event Series)
This will be the second of a TYJRC Online Learning Event series focused on the needs and current service gaps of unsheltered and runaway Native youth across the country. During this Online Learning Event (OLE), Frankie White Dress, Director, Oglala Sioux Tribe Emergency Youth Shelter, and Sheri Riemers (Nindaanisequay, White Earth Nation) Executive Director, Ain Duh Young Center (www.adycenter.org), will share prevention and intervention strategies that are proving to be successful in working with unsheltered and runaway Native youth. Alejandra Bruyere, California Native Youth Collective Representative for the Center for Native American Youth, will also share stories of resilience and hope. Data collection strategies and resources on this topic will be provided during the OLE to support OLE participants that are seeking to expand their services to this population of Native youth.
Part 1: Considerations in Developing Your JHWC Policies and Procedures Manual (PPM)
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