"Edzeno'' Traditional Healing Program

OVC’s mission is to enhance the nation’s capacity to assist crime victims and provide leadership in changing policies and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime. OVC achieves this mission, in part, by administering award programs supported by the federal Crime Victims Fund (CVF) to develop innovative training and technical assistance, and to provide direct services to improve the overall quality of victim assistance.

The overall goal of the Fiscal Year 2019 Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside Program is to provide support to tribal communities to improve services for victims of crime. Under the solicitation, OVC solicited applications for funding to support a comprehensive range of activities including needs assessment, strategic planning, program development and implementation, program expansion, and other activities needed to address the needs of a wide variety of crime victims in tribal communities.

Under Purpose Area 1: Establishment of a New Victim Service Program, the Nikolai Village requested funding to develop a victim services program to heal their people, using culturally relevant activities that are aligned with their traditional and cultural values. They propose to create a full-time Victim’s Advocate position, convene a tribal talking circle for tribal members, conduct a strategic planning session to develop plans for a victims of crime program, implement a victims traditional healing program, and conduct four Tribal Domestic Violence & Healing Training conferences per year, draft domestic violence tribal codes and ordinances, have elders present/ train crime victims, and take the victims back to the land while providing trauma informed activities.

(CA/NCF)