This publication builds upon other Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts Publication Series documents and aims to stimulate discussions within Wellness Courts and better serve Native American communities; it provides historical context for Wellness Courts and describes how to build a collaboration, with appendices containing collaboration resources and “do’s and don’ts.”
This document was created in order to help Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts (THWC) that are interested in building intergovernmental collaborations, including tribal-state collaborations. The document emphasizes the importance of collaboration regardless of whether or not the Wellness Court has been operational for decades or is only in the planning process. It also notes the different kinds and levels of collaborations, discussing some common traits found in existing collaborations, and using those common traits to discuss actual collaborations that are operating in the THWC context. It provides details on building intra-governmental and inter-governmental collaborations, levels of interaction, and co-training. It also provides Wellness Court Collaboration Profiles, with examples of minimal cooperation collaborative efforts, full cooperation efforts, and co-creation collaboration efforts. The appendices provide further collaboration resources, and tribal-state-local collaboration advice.