PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Two of the state’s Native American tribes each have received about $900,000 in federal grant funding to prevent violence against women and to reduce the recidivism rate of juvenile criminal offenders.
The Justice Department announced 206 awards, totaling more than $97 million, to American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, tribal consortia and tribal designees. The Aroostook Band of Micmacs was awarded $894,553 for its Violence Against Women Tribal Government Program.
The Penobscot Nation was awarded $876,889 for its Violence Against Women Tribal Government Program and $307,891 for its Juvenile Healing to Wellness Courts program.
The awards, announced Wednesday, were made through the federal department’s coordinated tribal assistance solicitation, or CTAS, program.
Julie Walton, director of the Micmac Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocacy Center, said Thursday that the tribe will use the money to open a transitional housing program and to fund a program to assist individuals with legal aid and advocacy. She said that the Maliseet program already has a shelter, and the transitional program will help get victims out of the shelter and into permanent housing.
The Penobscot Nation’s Juvenile Healing to Wellness Courts helps provide treatment services for offenders with substance abuse and/or mental health issues to reduce their chances of further criminal behavior, according to its website.
Todd Lowell, the tribal liaison for the U.S. attorney’s office for the district of Maine, said, “these awards to support efforts to reduce domestic and dating violence and to promote wellness and healing for tribal youth will undoubtedly help make these two Maine tribal communities safer and healthier.”
Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart F. Delery agreed.
“For the past five years, the CTAS program has helped tribes develop their own comprehensive approaches to making their communities safer and healthier,” he said.