1. Tiwahe Initiative
TBIC
November 9, 2016

2. Tiwahe Initiative Overview
Introduction to Tiwahe
Tiwahe means family in the Lakota language
This is a five-year initiative (2015 – 2019)
Coordinated Service Delivery Approach – The National Tiwahe Coordinator (NTC) works closely with each participating tribe to implement a plan and achieve Tiwahe goals through three phases:
Phase 1: Planning and Development
Phase 2: Service Delivery and Implementation
Phase 3: Reporting and Enhancement

3. Tiwahe Overarching Goal
To improve the health, safety, and well-being of families by implementation of a coordinated service delivery model among agencies and justice systems to:
increase access to family and social services,
create alternatives to incarceration via solution-focused sentencing options,
improve links to appropriate prevention, intervention and treatment opportunities,
improve case management services, and
improve the overall partnerships among local, tribal, county, state and federal providers to improve access to services for tribal children, youth and families.

4. Tiwahe Initiative Initial Stages of Development
FY 2015 – A Starting Point
More than $10 million appropriated to begin the Tiwahe Initiative
$5 million for Social Services (TPA)
$5 million for ICWA (TPA)
$550,000 to expand Job Placement and Training Programs
Info p/Spike:
JPT distributions were made based on FY14 tribal enrollment populations that transportation (Leroy) had available for each Tiwahe site; total populations for all sites were added together and distributions based on percentage of total population that each tribe comprised.
Funding distributed as follows:
Ute Mountain Ute members, 6% of total population, distribution of $33,000
Spirit Lake members, 17% of total population, distribution of $93,500
Red Lake members, 32% of total population, distribution of $176,000
AVCP members, 45% of total population, distribution of $247,500
ICWA/SS distributions:
21.54% increase in ICWA Across the Board funding for each Tiwahe site, (total: $265,666 for all sites)
8.07% increase in Social Services Across the Board funding for each Tiwahe site, (total: $114,332 for all sites)
Funding for an Family Advocacy Coordinator (FAC) at each site, (total: $365,000 for all sites)
28.46% Tiwahe base increase in ICWA funding at each site, and (total: $351,038 for all sites)
41.93% Tiwahe base increase in Social Services funding at each site (total: $594,037 for all sites)
Funding distributed as follows (includes above increases at each site): AVCP: $812,386
Red Lake: $219,707
Ute Mountain Ute: $386,855
Spirit Lake: $249,466
Total: $1,690,073
Additional expenditures:
- $137,136 ($34,284/site) to host Tiwahe kick off meeting in DC
- $265,866 National Tiwahe Coordinator Position
Total: $300,150 Other Tiwahe-related activities
Remaining funds
The remaining funds ($8,009,777) were used to provide across the board 21.54% increases to 365 tribes for ICWA ($4,688,858 total) and across the board 8.07% increases to 310 tribes for Social Services ($3,320,919).
Human Services GRAND total: $1,990,223 for Tiwahe tribes and $8,009,777 to all other tribes for ICWA and Social Services increases = $10,000,000

5. Tiwahe Initiative – FY 2016 New Beginnings
$4.3 million appropriated for Tiwahe
Supplemented original sites’ funding for infrastructure improvements and capacity-building activities
Explored methods that will allow Tiwahe tribes the opportunity to train other tribes and tribal organizations on their comprehensive approach to a coordinated service delivery model
- No new appropriations for JPT in FY16
-Total distributed for Tiwahe tribes was $2,540,470, as follows:
AVCP – $1,060,125
Ft Belknap – $227,658
Pascua Yaqui - $242,789
Red Lake - $252,253
Spirit Lake- $313,349
Ute Mountain Ute - $444,296
$1,800,000 – one-time funding for Tiwahe activities to six tribes ($300,000/each)
GRAND TOAL: $4,340,470
$5 million appropriated to OJS for tribal courts Tiwahe purposes also**
In 2016, funded juvenile presenting officers, parent defenders, and Guardian Ad Litems for tribes to implement in child welfare cases. Also funded code revision assistance and ICWA attorneys. Also funded training for court staff.

6. Tiwahe Initiative FY 2016 Achievements
Tiwahe plans were completed for initial four Tiwahe sites
Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) in Alaska
Red Lake Tribe in Minnesota
Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota
Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT) in Colorado
Selected two new Tiwahe sites:
Fort Belknap Tribe in Montana
Pascua Yaqui Tribe (PYT) in Arizona
National Tiwahe Coordinator was hired.
Launched the Center for Excellence.

7. Tiwahe Initiative – FY 2017 Building for the Future
Modification of tribal Tiwahe plan goals and priorities based on new or ending funding streams and in consideration of new federal revenue sources
One-on-one tribal technical assistance by National Tiwahe Coordinator to assist in Tiwahe plan implementation and coordination of services among implementing tribal agencies
National Coordinator facilitates project and program development sharing among Tiwahe tribes to assist tribes in building best practices models that can be shared with all of Indian Country
-NTC hosts calls with differing Tiwahe tribal agencies involved in on-site implementation.
-Assists with sharing information among Tiwahe sites until Tiwahe Web site is launched.

8. Tiwahe Initiative FY 2017 – Our Future
Requested an additional $18.4 million in annual funding to support Tiwahe-related programs
$12.3 million to support Social Services (TPA)
Increase demonstration sites
Increase number of social workers “on the ground”
$1 million to supplement the Evaluation and Research Contract
$1.1 million for the operation of the Center for Excellence
Requested an additional $1.7 million in annual funding to support the Housing Improvement Program (HIP) at Tiwahe demonstration sites
Requested an additional $3.4 million for ICWA
Requested an additional $1 million for Job Placement and Training
**$1.7M HIP funding request to be utilized specifically for Tiwahe sites. p/Babette

9. Tiwahe Initiative Sites

10. Tiwahe Initiative FY 17 Goals
Increase total amount of demonstration sites to 10 or more
Tiwahe creates models across Indian Country so that all tribes benefit from Tiwahe implementation and lessons learned
Create a Tiwahe Web site to facilitate sharing of best practices among Tiwahe tribes and for all of Indian Country
Tentative launch date: January 2017
Enhance coordination with Federal agency partners.
Improve coordination at national level with federal partners to address challenges and enhance strategies related to child protection, behavioral health and substance abuse, recidivism and tribal court & code development, housing, and technology challenges at Tiwahe sites

11. Tiwahe Initiative FY17 Goals
Host a Tiwahe conference for Tiwahe tribes.
Tiwahe tribes have developed agenda to focus on: data & metrics, client tracking database, and program information sharing & collaboration
Fully execute research and development contract
Develop common data collection platforms
Assist in identifying tribal goals and performance measures
Identify best practices
Evaluate effectiveness of demonstration sites implementation of Tiwahe Initiative
First bullet point:
Tentative first conference: February 2017??
Invite federal partner representatives to facilitate engagement with Tiwahe tribes
Goal is to host semi-annually on a rotating basis at Tiwahe sites able to host

12. Tiwahe Initiative Moving Forward
Focus on domestic violence prevention and intervention services for victims and children
Overlap between Domestic Violence criminal cases and resulting child dependency cases
SDVCJ implications in contemporary society
Implementation of a shared client data tracking management system
The majority of Tiwahe tribes report that Domestic Violence is second, only to substance abuse-related criminal offenses, as the most charged criminal offenses in their tribal courts.
SDVCJ = Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction (SDVCJ)
First minor bullet point:
VAWA implication: At least 30 children on scene during VAWA arrests at Pascua Yaqui, the Initiative’s only tribe exercising SDVCJ and prosecuting non-Indians.
Underscores importance of community (which may include non-Indians – due to contemporary relationships btwn Indians and non-Indians) awareness activities undertaken by TLOA, Tiwahe and TBHA (in Mirtha’s first chart) and that have now become focus for Tiwahe tribes.
Tiwahe tribes focused on community awareness and campaigns for meth and opiate/heroin use prevention, domestic violence awareness (esp as to the effects on children who witness DV)

13. Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) Awards - DOJ
All Tiwahe sites that applied for CTAS funding were funded in FY 2016.
Fort Belknap: $1,122,490 for Corrections and Correctional Alternatives (BJA) and Tribal Youth Program (OJJDP)
Pascua Yaqui: $1,609,919 for Justice Systems and Alcohol and Substance Abuse (BJA), Violence Against Women Tribal Governments Program (OVW), Children’s Justice Act Partnerships for Indian Communities (OVC), and Comprehensive Tribal Victim Assistance Program (OVC)
Red Lake: $1,361,368 for Comprehensive Tribal Justice Systems Strategic Planning (BJA), Violence Against Women Tribal Governments Program (OVW), and Comprehensive Tribal Victim Assistance Program (OVC)
Spirit Lake: $345,300 for Tribal Youth Program (OJJDP)
BJA: Bureau of Justice Assistance
OJJDP: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
OVW: Office of Violence Against Women
OVC: Office for Victims of Crime

14. Red Lake Tribe - Healing to Wellness Court (HTWC)
The tribe is braiding in DOJ CTAS funding awards to support its Tiwahe plan goals to reduce juvenile recidivism and the number of children in out-of-home care.
Tribe was awarded DOJ CTAS funding to implement a Juvenile HTWC and Family (dependency) Drug Court
Red Lake did not write in a request for a salary for a presiding judge for either court in its CTAS solicitation. The NTC and OJS Court lead are working to fund a judge for these courts under the Tiwahe Initiative.
This will be a model that other Tiwahe sites will use during implementation phase
Example of coordinated collaboration of Tiwahe funding between OIS and OJS.
Goal: Implementation of Juvenile HTWC by January 2017.
Second bullet:
-The implementation of juvenile HTWC and family drug court will continue to support these Tiwahe Initiative plan goals by decreasing the number of juveniles recidivating and increasing the number of family reunifications in dependency cases
Third bullet:
Pascua Yaqui and Fort Belknap both have plans to implement Juvenile HTWCs and PYT also including dependency drug court in its Tiwahe plan.

15. Spirit Lake – Domestic Violence (DV) Victims Assistance & Dakota Culture
The Tribe’s Victims Assistance Program operates victims programs funded by the DOJ. There are not sufficient appropriations to purchase items to utilize in culturally-focused activities.
The Tribe will utilize Tiwahe funding to infuse culture into DOJ-funded programs
E.g. Purchase of materials for victims support groups to engage in beading, making ribbon skirts for sweats and ceremonies, etc.
Goal: Cultural connectedness will support DV victims in sharing their story and will promote healing in an environment that encourages support for one another.
Ancillary impact: promotes community connectedness.
Tribes focused on implementing programming that incorporates community connectedness to establish support systems for community members who suffer with overcoming substance abuse, leaving violent relationships, etc.
Ancillary goal: increase in DV awareness and support will reduce number of children removed due to DV

16. Pascua Yaqui Tribe (PYT) and Community Prosecution
The tribe’s focus is development of cultural programming as prevention programming to reduce criminal recidivism and child neglect cases.
The tribe received CTAS funding to revamp its prosecutorial diversion programs to be more aligned with its community prosecution model.
It will infuse culture by coordinating Tiwahe funds to develop family-focused cultural programming to promote community connectedness, decrease the recidivism rate, and increase reunifications in dependency cases.
GOAL: Build a traditional outdoor kitchen and develop cultural programming focused on teaching about traditional foods & plants & how to cook them with family.
Ancillary goal: education about tradition, culture, and language.
Community prosecution is founded on the idea that prosecutors have a responsibility not only to prosecute cases but to solve public safety problems, prevent crime and improve public confidence in the justice system. Prosecutors are taking on new responsibilities that reflect this shift and collaborating with others (including residents, community groups and other government agencies) in the development of problem-solving initiatives. Rather than simply tallying cases won or jail sentences imposed, community prosecutors are measuring the effect of their work on neighborhood quality of life, community attitudes and crime. -- all go to the heart of Tiwahe
CTAS funding allows for development of P&Ps, structure, etc. to carry out Tiwahe-funded cultural programming activities that defendants and child dependency-involved parents will participate in with their families (and as an Alternatives to Incarceration).

17. Tribal Access Program (TAP) and Domestic Violence & Child Protection
This year, the Red Lake and Fort Belknap tribes will apply for participation in the Tribal Access Program (TAP) with the DOJ.
The Pascua Yaqui Tribe was a part of the first TAP cohort and has agreed to lead other Tiwahe tribes as they undergo the application process.
TAP will, among other things, provide tribes the ability to upload Orders of Protections to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and complete background checks for emergency placement of children.
DOJ will pay for equipment and training related to TAP implementation
These tribes will work with OIS and OJS to coordinate additional positions to maintain TAP participation and upload of information to allow tribes to make the best use of the TAP.