U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Tribal Court Improvement Program

The Tribal Court Improvement Program (TCIP) will provide grants to tribal governments or to tribal consortia to improve the handling of American Indian and Native Alaskan child welfare cases by tribal courts. The grants will provide support to tribal governments to: (1) Conduct assessments of how tribal courts (including courts for tribal consortia) handle child welfare proceedings; (2) Implement changes to address the results of child welfare court assessments; (3) Ensure that the safety, permanency, and well-being needs of children are met in a timely and complete manner; and (4) Continuously improve the quality of court hearings and legal representation, including engagement of parties, through training and efforts to increase substantive and procedural justice.

TCIP projects will use grant funds to design and implement a five-year project. Year one must include a comprehensive assessment of tribal court handling of child welfare proceedings. Projects must identify whether work will be done by project staff or through an external partner or contractor. If the assessment is to be performed by a contractor, it must be to address identifiable tribal requirements and be completed within 10 months of award of the grant. Years 2-5 of the project must be used to implement interventions and make changes to practice and policy.

Amount: A total of $934,000 is available to fund eight awards ranging from $50,000-$150,000 and averaging $100,000 per budget period. The project period is 60 months.

Eligibility: Indian tribes or tribal consortia that:

• Are operating an approved title IV-E program in accordance with section 479B of the Social Security Act (the Act) (42 U.S.C. § 679c)
• Plan to operate a title IV-E program and/or have received a Tribal Title IV-E Plan Development Grant, as authorized by section 476 of the Act (42 U.S.C. § 676)
• Have a court responsible for proceedings related to foster care or adoption

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=298124

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