St. Paul Island tribe gets $1.73 million in federal grants for addiction treatment

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island has a $999,999 Justice Department grant, obligated Oct. 22, to strengthen its healing to wellness court for tribal citizens living in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

A second Justice Department grant of $730,000, obligated Oct. 16, is for substance use prevention and intervention for families on St. Paul Island. Together the two awards total about $1.73 million.

The court already reaches from the island to Anchorage. At a June 17 Anchorage Assembly Housing and Homelessness Committee meeting, city staff described the tribe as a new grantee extending its island wellness court to an Anchorage location, with housing stability services for members. In September, a federal health grant of $137,161 went to treatment for the same court, aimed at 105 justice-involved adults.

The new court grant, from the Justice Department's treatment court grant program, covers adults with substance use disorders, co-occurring mental health disorders and high criminogenic risk, according to the federal award record. It pays for judicial supervision, random drug and alcohol testing, overdose prevention education, transportation help and sober housing. Partners include Southcentral Foundation, the tribe's Department of Healing and Wellness, its Department of Community Safety and Peace and its Bering Sea Campus. The grant runs through Sept. 30, 2030.

The smaller grant, under the Justice Department's Opioid Affected Youth Initiative, funds a program called Prevention and Intervention for Success. It serves pregnant and postpartum women, parents, caregivers and youth, with screening, home-based family needs assessments, case management and monthly home visits. The project addresses high substance use rates and limited access to coordinated services on the island, according to the award record. Services extend to Anchorage and Mat-Su for members living or temporarily relocating off the island. The grant runs from Nov. 1 through Oct. 31, 2029.

The same program awarded $730,000 each on Oct. 16 to the Native Village of Dot Lake, for youth and family services in rural Interior Alaska, and to Cook Inlet Tribal Council, for families in the Anchorage area.

Justice Department award lists under the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation record $797,248 for the St. Paul tribe in fiscal year 2017, $882,077 in fiscal 2022 and $1,534,514 in fiscal 2023, including a $400,000 juvenile wellness court award. The fiscal 2025 list records $1,749,350.

The federal records show money obligated, not money spent.