Raslyn Sleet, the grants program manager for the city of Chandler, explains some general data about the Proposition 202 tribe grant pass-through program and this year’s local recipients to the City Council. This year’s $140,000 in grants go to three organizations selected by the Gila River Indian Community.
Over the past three or four years, local governments in Arizona have placed a stronger emphasis on funding mental-health programs and organizations — especially those meant to help teens or other young people.
Teen Lifeline will be one of the nonprofits that receives a grant as part of this year’s $140,000 in pass-through Proposition 202 grants approved unanimously by the Chandler City Council on Sept. 11 to go to organizations affiliated with the Gila River Indian Community.
Proposition 202, which became law in 2002, is what authorizes the state to have gaming compacts with individual tribes, with tribes agreeing to share a portion of gaming revenues with the state and its local county and other municipalities.
The law requires 12% of tribal contributions from the compacts to go to cities, towns and counties for government services that benefit the general public, with a list of categories of public benefit allowed.
Tribes have some discretion over how these contributions will be made, and form their own application procedures.
Raslyn Sleet, the grants program manager for the city, told council that the city doesn’t expressly call for grant applications as part of the Proposition 202 program.
“Typically, we see these organizations seeking that funding on their own,” she said.
Teen Lifeline was founded in 1986 in response to a devastating wave of teen suicides in Arizona, a staff report states. It provides free, 24-7, peer-to-peer crisis intervention and suicide prevention services.
The report states Teen Lifeline reaches more than 350,000 individuals statewide each year, responding to over 40,000 crisis calls and texts while working with more than 80 school districts — including Chandler Unified — to integrate suicide prevention into classrooms, policy and public health initiatives.
Teen suicide hotline support allows Teen Lifeline to expand its crisis services within schools and communities, meeting teens where they are before they reach a breaking point, the report states, as well as suicide prevention workshops, school partnerships and “postvention” support.
Postvention is an organized immediate, short- and long-term response in the aftermath of a suicide to promote healing and mitigate the negative effects of exposure to suicide, according to a fact sheet from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
Teen Lifeline is to receive $100,000 as part of this year’s grant process.
Other recipients this year of the city’s and Gila River’s pass-through grants this year include the Si Se Puede Foundation, which will receive $20,000 for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning for youth and young adults at the STEM Center in Chandler.
The other $20,000 will go to the Chandler Cultural Foundation for its Connect Kids arts program.
Jason W. Brooks can be reached at jbrooks@iniusa.org.
Jason W. Brooks News Editor | Chandler Independent
Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.
Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.
Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.
Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.
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