The Tanana Chiefs Conference is one of the recipients over 50 million dollars in youth suicide prevention grants announced yesterday for states and tribes across the country. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelious, who has been touring Alaska this week, and was in Fairbanks yesterday to meet with Native leaders, says the grant will locally address a national problem.
The 3 year grant program could bring as much as 1.4 million to T.C.C, for youth suicide prevention. Sebelius says behavioral health services were identified as a missing component by people she talked with during this week’s Alaska trip, which included stops in Anaktuvuk Pass, Barrow and Tanana. She says the tour, her first Alaska trip to destinations other than Juneau, gave her a close up look at the challenges in Alaska’s remote Native villages.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
