U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich announces $800,000 grant from Justice Department to the University of Montana for tribal children’s advocacy

BILLINGS  — U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich today announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded $800,000 to the University of Montana to fund a program that provides assistance to victims of child abuse in tribal communities.

The grant is for the Fiscal Year 2023 Victims of Child Abuse Act Tribal Children’s Advocacy Centers Training and Technical Assistance program. The award is from the Office of Justice Programs’ Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention and is a continuation for a project that began in 2022 and will end in 2024.

“I want to congratulate the University of Montana on this grant award for its important work on behalf of native children. The project provides technical assistance and training to tribes and children advocacy groups as they develop, improve and expand responses to child abuse. This funding continues the U.S. Department of Justice’s commitment to addressing and preventing child abuse and trauma in tribal communities,” U.S. Attorney Laslovich said.

With the project, the Native Child Advocacy Resource Center (NCARC), a division of the National Native Children’s Trauma Center at the University of Montana, will serve as the Justice Department’s Tribal Children’s Advocacy Centers (CAC) Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) provider. NCARC will provide training and technical assistance to tribes and non-tribal CACs and multidisciplinary teams as they develop, improve or expand responses to child abuse in tribal communities. One of the goals of the project is to build a hub of curricula, resources and information on Children’s Advocacy Centers in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

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