UKB Tribe Wins a Large DOJ Funding Grant With Help of mctlaw Attorney Sophie Asher

Grant To Be Used for a United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court

We are thrilled to report that the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma (“UKB”) recently received a substantial grant from the Department of Justice to continue their court development project. Mctlaw attorney Sophie Asher played a key role in preparing the UKB’s grant application. This award will be used to plan and implement a juvenile healing to wellness court to work with young people in the Tribe struggling with substance use. Sophie has invaluable experience working in a healing to wellness court in New Mexico, and she is very much looking forward to working with the UKB in developing another court of this nature.

Starting a juvenile healing to wellness court is one of the most meaningful—and challenging—endeavors a court can undertake. A healing to wellness court is a choice a community makes to invest in its young people and meet those challenges head on, and to say we are not ready to give up on you. Juvenile healing to wellness courts address substance use and underlying issues of that use, reduce recidivism, and lower the cost of supervision per person than incarceration or traditional probation. These are just data-driven terms to say healing to wellness courts work to heal the whole person.

This award allows the UKB to support its own children. The participants will receive services from the community, with UKB values and practices, surrounded by family, in a court that is on their homeland. By providing these services within the community, the UKB offers one more option for its members to truly heal. Mctlaw was proud to help with this effort, and we look forward to supporting the UKB as they continue to grow and strengthen their court system.

Please contact the Indian Law legal team at mctlaw for support with Federal Funding, Tribal Governance, and Indian Child Welfare issues.