Our Vision
Envisioning a future where Indigenous youth thrive through traditional lifeways.
Our Purpose
Enhancing the opportunities for Indigenous communities to expand their potential in protecting and nurturing their most sacred asset – the youth.
The Tribal Youth Resource Center is committed to changing the narrative and the future for our American Indian/Alaska Native youth. According to the global nonprofit Aspen Institute, these young people are the single most at-risk population in our country. Besides deficits in health care and education, our youth face serious challenges because of poverty, addiction, and suicide rates, as well as increased violence and gang activity.
And yet, like those who came before them, our Native youth are resilient, a living legacy and testimony to the long held indigenous value that our children are sacred. We are diligent in our pledge to develop innovative community-led solutions and strategies that are culturally grounded, and evidence based through our work with American Indian and Alaska Native youth and their families, Tribal Youth Program grantees and Tribal Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court grantees.
How we do it?
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, within the U.S. Department of Justice, provides funding to support tribal efforts to improve juvenile justice systems for our Native Youth. All federally recognized tribes are eligible to apply for grants which enable them to work in concert with the Tribal Youth Resource Center on culturally-based approaches to prevention and intervention, enhancement of tribal court systems, trauma-informed care, technical and training assistance, and much more – all while preserving and honoring traditional lifeways.
Working together, we can do more than lift a pebble, we can move mountains.
