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Reclaiming Futures Cherokee Nation is one of 26 Reclaiming Futures projects utilizing a new approach to help teens involved with drugs, alcohol, and crime. We are partnering with the courts, treatment facilities, juvenile justice, community and families to meet the urgent needs of these young people in our juvenile justice system.

Reclaiming Futures Cherokee Nation will integrate the Reclaiming Futures model into our Healing to Wellness Court, which is designed through a Native American point of view where culture and tradition are used in the treatment process. Working with the Jack Brown Treatment Center, we have been awarded grants from 2009-2013 by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency. We receive technical assistance from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Some youth in the Cherokee Nation are in trouble with drug and alcohol problems that need to be solved before becoming an adult where the statistics and assistance don’t necessarily improve. Of the 5,800 Native youth arrested in the targeted five county area in 2008, only 14 youth or 0.002 percent were diverted to drug court, boot camp, tribal youth program, or some other alternative service. And the average age of young people entering the Jack Brown Treatment Center is skewing younger, recently decreasing from 16.3 to 15.6.

At Reclaiming Futures Cherokee Nation, we are working to improve the quality of alcohol and drug treatment services available to youth in our justice system. We are doing the following to help young people in our area:

• Applying the Reclaiming Futures model into our Healing to Wellness Court, which is designed to use Native American culture and tradition in the treatment process
• Expanding our services to Native American youth of all federally recognized tribes and expanding to other counties within the Cherokee Nation jurisdiction
• Using the Cherokee Nation’s Jack Brown Center, an adolescent treatment center that offers both in-patient and out-patient counseling services
• Offering additional treatment options and more resources such as special classes, self-esteem promotions, and additional group and individual counseling sessions

Our core partners
Jack Brown Treatment Center
Cherokee Nation Department of Children, Youth, & Family Services
John A. Ketcher Youth Shelter
Sequoyah High School
Cherokee Nation District Court
Cherokee Nation Marshal Service
Cherokee Nation Office of the Attorney General
Office of Juvenile Affairs

How to get involved:
Contact: Jennifer Kirby, Project Director
Address: Human Services, P.O. Box 948
Tahlequah, OK 74465
Phone: 918-453-5150
Email: jennifer-kirby@cherokee.org