Tribe: Tulalip Tribes of Washington
Family Wellness Court aims to get parents clean, help them regain custody of their children and get them out of the court system for good. The program is a collaboration between multiple departments with the same intent of helping someone attain sobriety. Parents are included in the entire process from the moment they accept help to the moment they are reunified with their children. Team-based collaborative approach results in faster case resolution and more families becoming reunified than a normal child welfare case. The support includes all team members working hard to support the needs of parents to become healthy and reach their full potential for the children. Program requires cultural involvement, providing ‘good medicine’ while encouraging clients to drop the bad drugs. Clients fulfill ‘give-back’ hours to the community, participating in cultural practices such as singing, dancing, and learning ancestral lifeways during volunteer hours, which facilitates reintegration back into the tribal community. To qualify, must be the parent of a Tulalip tribal member who currently has an open child dependency case with the Tribal Court System.
Read Full Text of Family Wellness Court (implementation began 2020-2021)