Tlingit & Haida set to receive $1.57M for overdose response training

A $1,572,239 federal grant will train and equip first responders, Village Public Safety Officers where available, and community partners across Southeast Alaska to respond to overdoses. The project sets a target population of 2,000 people.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is set to award the money to the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska in Juneau, under award ID H79TI089297. The four-year period runs Sept. 30, 2026, through Sept. 29, 2030. The tribe's Public Safety Division will run the work.

The award draws a line around what the money does not buy: "Tlingit & Haida Public Safety will not duplicate outpatient treatment services." The division will instead train, equip, coordinate, document, restock, strengthen referral pathways and connect people to treatment, recovery, medical, crisis and tribal services through partners.

Others the project aims to reach include tribal public safety staff, shelters and warming centers, food distribution and reentry partners, clinics, village and community councils, and individuals with recent overdoses, housing instability, active substance use or justice system involvement. The award describes the service area as larger than 12 Lower 48 states.

Lessons are to be shared statewide through one tribal public safety overdose response summit, plus smaller regional or community trainings as budget and travel allow.

It is one of three HHS awards to the tribe dated Sept. 30, totaling $3,260,221. A $1,437,982 SAMHSA grant funds Project AWARE, a five-year school-based mental health initiative for about 1,845 K-12 students at eight schools in Juneau, Chatham, Hoonah and Wrangell. A $250,000 Administration for Children and Families grant funds tribal court modernization.

Alaska News previously covered two SAMHSA awards totaling $2,213,555: $895,401 to place naloxone in nine Southeast communities reachable only by air or sea, and $1.3 million to extend the tribe's Healing Center into Washington's Puget Sound region. Separately, the Public Safety Division received nearly $1.5 million in federal tribal justice grants in 2023. In March, the Executive Council voted 6-0 to back a residential treatment center proposed by Ketchikan Indian Community at Salmon Falls.