The U.S. Justice Department recently awarded 90 American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes more than $84 million in Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) grants.
The grants help enhance tribal justice systems and strengthen law enforcement responses, fund an array of services for crime victims, support youth programs, combat domestic and sexual violence, and help handle child abuse cases.
The grants funded 152 projects that will help address the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous peoples and human trafficking.
“We have heard from tribal leaders about the complex public safety challenges their communities are facing and about the innovative and culturally appropriate solutions they propose to meet those challenges,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Brent J. Cohen of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), said. “These investments in tribal community safety infrastructure, tribal youth programs, law enforcement activities in Indian country, and services for American Indian and Alaska Native survivors represent a strong and steady commitment on the part of the Office of Justice Programs to the safety of tribal communities.”
OJP funds tribal programs for youth, the strengthening of tribal justice system infrastructure, and the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases.
OJP’s Office for Victims of Crime also awarded nearly 200 grants totaling more than $54 million to provide services for crime victims in tribal communities.