THE TULALIP TRIBAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: A PATH TO WELLNESS

This research planning project aims to establish a CBPR partnership between the Tulalip Tribes of Washington and the Washington State University. This partnership will inform a data-driven, evidence-based understanding of the Tribes’ existing criminal justice system (CJS) and collaborate to design a research project to study the effectiveness of trauma-informed, healing initiatives being implemented by the Tribe. The project’s activities include (1) using a sequential intercept model to guide project planning and scoping exercises to establish (a) a shared understanding of the existing justice system and its practices, (b) to identify existing data sources at each intercept that may inform practice, and (c) to determine data quality to inform research and data analyses; (2) collaborate to design a culturally informed Tulalip Tribes Agency Trauma-Informed Assessment Tool to be used in future research to determine the tribal justice system’s existing and future capacity to implement a CJS driven by trauma-informed care; and (3) collaborate to obtain executed memorandum of understandings and data sharing agreements, and institutional review board approvals. The deliverables will include: (1) a fully developed, Tulalip Tribe informed, process evaluation proposal to study the implementation and evaluation of tribal healing interventions targeting justice-involved tribal members, (2) a partnership report detailing the strengths and challenges in developing a research partnership from the perspective of each partner, (3) presentations of the baseline findings to the Tulalip Tribes’ government leaders, CJS stakeholders, and community groups, and (4) peer-reviewed journal articles.